The Legendarian Chronicles Rewritten
by Chibi Pika
Summary: After witnessing an attack orchestrated against Entei, Jade finds herself unwittingly tangled up in an ongoing plot involving rogue factions of Team Rocket trying to sow discord within the team and prevent the Legendaries from being overthrown. But alliances turn deadly as double agents on both sides are revealed, and with no one left to trust, the only objective is staying alive.
1. Prologue

**Prologue: Separation**

_The time has come, the era draws nearer…_

_Every day the balance grows more unstable…how long until it falls?_

_Our actions tip the scale…how long until the past is destroyed?_

_The Revolution is coming…_

A pair of eyes snapped open suddenly, radiating an eerie cobalt aura and illuminating the inky blackness within the depths of the sea. The true blessing of light had never reached the utter void of the ocean floor, and even the rare glow of life could not betray its concealment. The creature to which the eyes belonged knew this better than any other. The deep was always dark and always would be. The deep was always calm—not like the surface. The deep could always hide those who wished to be hidden.

The ancient creature had spent much time within this realm of its dominion, reflecting upon the state of the world. The Order of the Legends had been empowered to protect the balance, and protect it they had. For so long they had kept watch over its course…caring for it…guiding it. At that thought, the words of the other Legendary Pokémon echoed within the creature's mind. It had been so long ago—the time when that balance had fallen.

The story was well known amongst the Order of Legends, though after eons of being passed on, retelling after retelling, it was now more myth than truth. Such thoughts had been the creature's sole focus; the legend told of a time when Pokémon and humans had lived divided. And just when it seemed that the two worlds would be joined, conflict had torn the land apart. It had taken every effort for the Order to mend the balance, though the exact tale had been lost to time.

Remembering the secrets of the past only brought further urgency upon the present. There was still one last legacy from that era, and it was far more significant than any of them had imagined. The events of the past few months had confirmed it—that much was certain.

At once, the creature shot up from the ocean trench like a silver torpedo. The crushing depths released their hold as it flew through the water, scattering countless tiny water Pokémon in its wake. Piercing eyes adjusted to the rapid increase of light just in time to be met with the inviting glimmer of the surface right above. And then the beast rocketed out of the sea. Cool, salty air washed over its body, a sharp contrast to the water's embrace. The sensation was like needles against its feathers, but still…there was something almost freeing about being able to beat its wings through the currents of wind and take gulps of sweet air that burned its unused lungs yet felt so good.

It was so wildly different than the deep, but somehow felt just as right. Flying was, indeed, one of the simplest joys in this world. The creature effortlessly sailed through the skies, its wings stealing bits of silvery cloud from all around to shield it from the view of any onlookers, had there been any. One could never be too careful, especially when legendary.

_The legends shall reawaken on the eve of the fourth millennium after the war. And from there shall dawn the new era, with the schism rekindled and the fires of war ignited, only to be smothered by a wave of revolution._

It was a strange thought, knowing that the balance of the world soon unravel again. Less than seven years remained. The initiation had begun years ago, but now…now the search would be set into motion. It seemed like such an unusual course of action, but the legendary creature knew that it could not be helped, as it was the only way. Eight humans, eight members of the Order…was it even possible? Lugia gazed down over the mainland, its mind filled with vague feelings. For now, at least, events would have to run their course…

* * *

A loud ringing filled the air, which meant the end of class for the day—and it was about time, too. I quickly stuffed my books into my backpack, following after my classmates and pretending I hadn't heard the last-minute assignment that we'd been given. It would have been just as normal as any other afternoon, except my head was still filled with rumors from earlier that morning.

I glanced down the other end of the hallway just in time to spot my friend Ajia, a small fifth-grader with dark hair and eyes. Well, that was good—at least I'd get to talk to someone before the end of the day.

"Hey Ajia!" I called out, waving to her from the crowd of my fourth-grade classmates before quickly making my way over to where she was standing.

"Heya, how was class?" she asked.

"Meh…failed a Pokéspeech quiz—you know, as always," I replied with a smirk.

Ajia laughed. "Yeah, that class is confusing doom when you first start out. It gets better later on, though," she said.

"Yeah…" I replied, my mind wandering back to what had been bothering me most of the day. "So, uh…have you seen Starr? I didn't even see her at lunch." I fidgeted a bit—how was I supposed to bring up the topic? "Is it really true, that…?" My words sort of died before the end.

Ajia sighed. "I think she didn't want to talk about it with you 'cause she knew you'd take it the hardest…"

"What? What does that even—ugh, I've got to talk to her before she leaves."

"She's right outside, actually," Ajia pointed out.

I blinked. "Huh? She's not taking the bus home?"

"No, her mom's picking her up. If you hurry, you might catch her."

"Okay. See you on Monday!" I exclaimed, immediately taking off through a pair of double doors behind me.

The bright afternoon light stung my eyes as I raced past the areas where the younger kids would get picked up by their parents. I quickly looked over all of the groups sitting along the ledges by the parking lot…and then spotted a girl dressed in a purple shirt and jean skirt sitting by herself off to the side. My footsteps slowed, and I hesitated a bit before walking up to her.

"Hey, Jade," Starr mumbled, looking up slightly when she saw me. She was leaning forward so that her short brown hair fell across her face—probably trying to keep from looking me in the eye.

I sat down next to her, but didn't say anything at first. She had only hinted at what was going on, and I had no idea what I was supposed to think. "So…this is really your last day at school here?" I finally said.

Starr slowly nodded, not really looking up.

"Where're you moving to?" I asked cautiously. She obviously didn't want to talk about it…and I almost didn't want to know.

Her voice was blank as she replied, "Cianwood." I didn't even know where that was supposed to be.

Everything felt silent after that. It was like nothing around us even existed. I couldn't get my thoughts straight—all of this had come up too fast. I couldn't figure any of it out.

"It's not fair!" I suddenly exclaimed. "You only just moved here a month ago. And moving on your birthday? What's up with that?"

"I don't know…it's all my mom's idea, and she didn't tell me anything. But my dad's staying here in Viridian," Starr said gloomily.

I folded my arms. "Huh. You never really saw your dad very often before…did you?"

She shook her head.

"Still…it's stupid that your mom won't tell you why all of this is happening," I added.

"Yeah…she keeps saying that she wants me and my brother to have a better life that we couldn't have gotten here, or something like that…she never really explains," Starr mumbled.

"Hey, that's right, what does your brother think about all of this? Isn't he friends with Ajia?"

Starr sighed. "I don't know, Lexx has been acting weird and not talking to me much lately," she said with a bit of a scowl.

Neither of us said anything else for a while. I stared at the floor as the time went on, feeling sort of lost. Wanting to make the conversation more enjoyable without totally changing the subject, I asked, "So…since you'll be in Johto when you get your trainer's license, which of the starter Pokémon are you gonna choose?"

"Probably Totodile. You know how much I like water Pokémon," she said, smiling for once.

"Cool. It's too bad I won't turn twelve for almost three more years. Then I could start a Pokémon journey and—" I realized it instantly. "Hey, wait! If you're gonna be a Pokémon Trainer, that means you can travel anywhere you want, right? So then you can come visit way before I become a trainer!"

She paused, looking surprised. "I hadn't thought of that. It'll have to be in a while when I get strong Pokémon to protect me while traveling so far, but I will."

My face fell. I had been expecting her to be more excited about it. Instead, Starr just stared downward, like she was lost in thought. She looked like she wanted to tell me something else, but didn't say anything more.

We sat there for some time. It was probably only a few minutes, but it seemed like forever. And then Starr glanced up suddenly at a blue car that had just parked along the curb. She stared at it for a few seconds, then stood to her feet and threw her backpack over her shoulder before walking towards the car, her feet dragging a bit. She had only taken a few steps when she paused suddenly and turned back towards me one last time.

"Bye."

Just hearing that one word made me feel weirdly numb. I forced a smile—it felt fake, and I could tell from her face that she wasn't fooled by it.

I didn't watch as she got in the car.

* * *

Yep. I'm starting this back up again. I can guarantee that it will completely trump the old one in terms of quality. Also I can offer a much more regular update schedule. It still suffers from flaws in its core premise, but it's entertained people in the past, and all I can hope is that you'll enjoy it.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Death on the Mountainside**

_June 14, 3:31 PM_

Summer days were made for this—made for the feeling of exhilaration and the blast of wind in my face as my bike flew down the street. A slight twinge of fear pricked at the back of my mind, but that didn't matter; my head was too flooded with excitement. I kept my eyes focused straight ahead. My teeth were clenched. My fists tightly gripped the handlebars as I closed in on my target. Just a few more feet, and—

The front wheel thudded against the start of the ramp; I pulled up on the handlebars suddenly at just the right moment, sending my bike flying into the air.

"Woo! Yeah!" I yelled, throwing a fist towards the sky in victory. It didn't matter how many times I had jumped that same ramp; that feeling of being airborne was always _amazing_. I landed several feet away with a thump and immediately veered my handlebars to double back in a wide arc, turning to look at the top of the hill.

"Did you see how much air I got?" I yelled.

"Big deal, I can beat that!" my friend Rudy called out to me while speeding downward on his bike. The usual determined grin covered his tan face, and his dark brown eyes were wide and full of confidence as he raced downward. Neither of us were really experts at this whole biking thing, but still—it was our favorite way to spend the after-school hours…and summer offered the promise of biking every day.

I sluggishly pedaled upward, still watching him race toward the ramp. And then—wait, what?

Before I had any idea what was going on, a black blur had raced out of nowhere and skidded to a halt right in front of me. I swerved instantly to avoid hitting it, but then—crap, I was heading for a parked car, turn, turn! I spun too far, felt my wheels hit the curb awkwardly, then found myself toppling over into a sprawled heap on the grass.

Well, that was random. But there was really only one thing that could have done that. Sure enough, I felt heavy paws on my chest immediately afterward. Black fur filled my entire field of vision, and the air was filled with musty, hot breath and uneven panting.

"Ow…get _off_, Ebony!" I yelled, shoving the dog away. She lumbered off, but sat down less than two feet from me, apparently fighting the urge to jump on me again. With an exasperated sigh, I said, "You're never gonna get tired of this game, are you?" Sure, she knew who I was, but still felt determined as ever to "protect" her territory and owner—who was now standing next to his bike, cracking up.

"Pfft—shut up, Rudy," I laughed, climbing to my feet and wiping the grass off my baggy shirt and jeans. "How'd Ebony get out this time?" I glanced back at the energetic young dog Pokémon, who was now wagging her short, stubby tail with the apparent hope that she could play with us.

"Dunno," Rudy said, shrugging. "I guess I didn't close the backyard up good enough. At least Chloe didn't get away." He grabbed Ebony's collar and led her toward his backyard. The Houndour followed without struggle, although her reluctance showed with how heavily she dragged her paws.

"Oh yeah, and I forgot to tell you…I get to take Ebony with me when I leave," Rudy spoke up casually, as though I already knew what he was talking about.

"Huh?" I said offhandedly, not really sure what he was getting at. And then suddenly my brain clicked into place. "Wait, wait… You're going on a Pokémon Journey? Now?"

"Yeah, didn't I tell you?" he asked.

"No. You didn't," I said flatly. Really, he waited until now to tell me something like this?

"Yeah? Er, sorry…but come on, you can't be surprised. I mean, school just got out, and I'll be getting my score from the Pokémon Handling exam any day now. It's like the most perfect time to start training."

I had to admit he was right. Summer was really the best time for kids to start their training journey, even though you could apply to take the exam at any time during the Pokémon Handling class…after turning twelve and passing the two years required Pokémon courses beforehand. Rudy would have gotten his trainer's license last year if he hadn't been missing some credits—failing Pokéspeech the first time hadn't helped much either.

"It's not fair," I muttered. "I've been taking practically all of the Pokémon classes ever since forever. But did my parents let me take the test when everyone else did? No, it was always something like, 'you're not old enough and education is more important.'" It had taken all the begging and pleading in the world to be allowed to even take the test this year. And while I couldn't deny that I'd been excited when I'd opened the results envelope to see a passing grade the day before, it didn't mean much if I wasn't allowed to leave on a Pokémon Journey.

"I don't see why it really matters now, though," Rudy commented, looking kind of bored with my complaints after having heard them a dozen times. "I say you should just leave once you get your license."

"Are you kidding? I was only even allowed to take the test in the first place because I swore I just wanted to be able to train, and that I didn't want to go on a journey. I'd be in _so_ much trouble if I just up and left."

"Alright, alright, it was just an idea," he said, waving a hand impatiently. "At least you can get a license now. That's one thing."

"Yeah…" I mumbled distantly, not really wanting to talk about it anymore. Everyone else I knew had left to train and now Rudy, one of my few remaining friends, was leaving too. Then again, the other reason I was upset was probably just as significant—if not more—but…I didn't want to think about that right now.

"So…what Pokémon are you gonna get if you passed?" I asked, trying to change the subject. "You are gonna get a starter, right?" Sure, there was always the chance that he could have applied for Ebony to be his starter Pokémon, but most trainers just went with getting one of the official League-raised starters.

"What do you mean 'if'? Of course I passed, and why the heck would I pick anything other than Charmander?"

"Right," I said, rolling my eyes. "Because obviously having one fire Pokémon just isn't enough. This way you can light even _more_ random crap on fire." I guess the flame-tailed Charmander would be a perfect match for him, in that case.

"I just hope they don't run out of starters at the League registration building…" Rudy mumbled to himself as we led Ebony along a rock path to a fenced-off area of his backyard. "Maybe if I get my results today—it _is_ Friday—but so many trainers have already started…"

"Heyy, that's right—Charmander is the most popular Kanto starter. You might get stuck with Bulbasaur," I said tauntingly.

"Shut up," he laughed. "I don't like grass-types."

"_Really_? I had no idea," I said, rolling my eyes.

We stepped onto the grass and over to the fence where Rudy opened a gate and let her in with Chloe, another puppy Pokémon of his. Chloe wagged her fluffy, cream-colored tail and rubbed her orange-furred nose against the fence, but to no avail. The Growlithe then blinked her large eyes at us before deciding to roughhouse with Ebony. Rudy glanced around the backyard and clapped a hand to his forehead.

"Oh crud! I forgot to do my chores—my dad's gonna kill me!" he exclaimed frantically.

"I could help," I said, shrugging.

He considered the offer for a bit, running a hand through his spiky black hair. "No…if my dad gets home and sees that you're here…I wasn't even supposed to be playing in the first place. Help me get the ramp in and then I gotta get to work."

I groaned mentally as we ran back to the front yard—figures that something like this would come up. We grabbed opposite ends of the ramp and carried it to his garage, setting it in a corner next to the large piles of boxes that took up most of the space. He wheeled his bike in and slammed the garage shut.

"I'll see ya, Jade," Rudy said, running to the backyard.

"Later," I said, swinging a leg over my bike and riding down the street to my house. Well, a perfectly good day of biking had been cut short. The only thing I could think of to pass the time was…bike some more. It seemed like a nice day to go riding around town for a little bit, in any case…just to take my mind off things.

I grabbed my wallet from my room, quickly scribbled a note to my mom on the first piece of scrap paper I could find, and was about to head outside when a fluttering noise from the other room made me stop. The source of the noise was the Pidgey sitting atop the wooden perch in the corner, flapping his wings lightly. He chirped occasionally, not saying anything in particular but hoping to get my attention in the smallest way possible.

"Alright, alright, Swift. You don't have to be so shy—you know you can come with me whenever I go for a ride," I said cheerfully, holding out my arm as the small, tawny bird flew over to perch on my shoulder. I knew how boring it had to be staying inside all the time. As I walked outside and mounted my bike once again, the Pidgey took flight and soared in the sky above me, chirping contentedly.

I sped down the streets of Viridian City, glancing around at the densely packed stores and buildings of the town. I didn't have anywhere to go in particular, but the free time was nice, just being able to ride around aimlessly. I glanced up at the sky, taking my hands off the handlebars occasionally and thinking about everything that was going on.

Rudy was leaving. Going on a Pokémon journey, like everyone else. And as much as I hated to admit it…I'd been glad when he hadn't been able to get his license last year.

I'd never had many friends, but it seemed like for each one that left, I always had someone still here. First Ajia three years ago, then all the aspiring trainers in my year, and then everyone I knew in the year below me. I didn't even _want_ to be a professional Pokémon Trainer; I just wanted to go with them. There wasn't even much point in having passed the Handling exam—what good would a license do me now?

I hated to think about it, and yet I didn't want to do anything _but_ think about it.

I was now nearing the edge of Viridian city; the buildings on either side of the road grew further apart and open stretches of tall grass were now visible. I reached the point where the road merged with the highway to Johto, with trails leading north branching off into the forest—this was usually where I turned around. I glanced up at the sky and was about to call to Swift, but he was nowhere to be found.

"…Swift?" I called out hesitantly, half expecting him to hear me and suddenly fly into view, even though there was no sign of him anywhere in the open sky. Where had he gone? He had never done this before.

"Swift!" I yelled, pedaling hard to power my bike along the route. Part of me had just started to wonder how I would ever find him if he didn't come back when I noticed that the sky was empty. There were no birds within sight, and these fields were usually full of Spearow.

"That's…weird…" I muttered to myself. I surveyed the horizon intently, looking for any clues, and then spotted a glimpse of smoke within the trees to the north. What was that?

Feeling almost compelled to follow in that direction, I turned and rode along one of the trails that led north—towards the forest. I reached the treeline within minutes and kept going, unsure of whether I'd be any nearer to finding Swift when I could barely see the sky. Still, I kept feeling a vague sense of significance, like there was something I'd find here. I couldn't explain it, and the more time passed, the more stupid I felt.

I was just about to turn around when I caught sight of a winged figure passing over the trees above me.

"Swift?" I yelled, not expecting much. It could have been any bird.

Except it wasn't. It was him.

"Swift!" I exclaimed, holding out my arm for him to perch. "Why'd you fly off like that? What's going on?"

His expression was reserved like usual, but he looked distinctly troubled by something. He motioned a wing in the direction I had been heading.

"You flew that way? Did you see the smoke or something? Is there a fire?" I asked.

The Pidgey nodded. I glanced over my shoulder, but now that there was a thick canopy of trees above us, I couldn't make out the smoke. Then again…weren't there a lot of fire Pokémon living in this area? Fires had to be pretty common.

Swift gave a low string of chirps. This time they had meaning, and I had taken enough classes on Pokémon language to understand his words as, "*It's bad…you should see.*"

He took flight again towards the ridge north of us, and I followed in silence for several minutes. In time, the air was filled with a thick haze, and a horrible stench burned my nose. And still we continued on until we reached the edge of the destruction. One moment we were within the thick of the forest, and the next, there was nothing but the charred remains of tree trunks and blackened bits of what had once been grass and leaves. Flurries of ashes saturated the air, stinging my eyes. And that noxious odor just wouldn't go away.

I stopped dead. For whatever reason, I realized that the odor saturating the air was _burning flesh_. These woods had been filled with Pokémon, all of them now dead. My brain really had no idea how to process the scene. Who on earth expected to see something like this on an ordinary day?

"C'mon…" I muttered to Swift. "We don't need to be here. We shouldn't be here."

But then I caught a glimpse of flame amongst the ashes, still burning feebly at the edge of a dark mass. I leaned my bike against a tree before approaching it hesitantly, my eyes wide once I got a good look at it.

It was breathing.

The mound was alive. It was a _Charmander_.

I stared, unable to believe it. The lizard's normally glossy orange scales were burnt black, and with each breath its body shuddered, as though it were cold despite the fact that its body was filled with warmth. The flame that would normally have burned bright yellow on its tail was little more than a tiny scarlet ember that flickered constantly.

Shaking slightly, I reached a hand towards it. I didn't know why I was doing it—it was like my arm was moving on its own. So far the Charmander hadn't reacted to my presence at all. I took a deep breath before awkwardly attempting to pull the blackened scraps of leaf and wood away from it. The lizard's body jerked suddenly upon having its skin exposed to the air like that, and I pulled my hand back immediately. Okay, so trying to clean its wounds was a bad idea; I didn't even know what I was thinking. It wasn't like I had any water or bandages anyway. In fact, water probably would have made things worse.

The fire Pokémon didn't move again after that. It was still breathing though, so I could only guess that it was out cold.

"I wouldn't stay here much longer if I were you."

I almost jumped at the sudden voice—how was anyone else here? I immediately glanced over my shoulder to see a figure standing behind me. Upon turning to look at him more clearly, I could see that he was several years older than me—in his late teens at least—and quite a bit taller than me, for that matter. He was dressed in a black shirt with a long gray coat, dull blue cargo pants, and gray boots. The expression on his face was reserved, and somehow his overall air was that of someone much older.

"What did you say?" I asked.

"You shouldn't be here," he repeated. "They wouldn't want any witnesses, and"—he paused mid-sentence and suddenly asked, "Are you a Pokémon Trainer? You look old enough to be one."

"Um, no…not yet," I admitted. After a few seconds of awkward silence, I asked, "Are _you_?"

"Well, I'd have to be if I wanted to carry these around," he said, pointing to the small red and white spheres clipped onto his belt. Right…it would've been illegal for him to use Poké Balls if he weren't a licensed trainer.

Now gazing at the ravaged landscape, he muttered, "Amazing how much damage humans can cause… The fire's spread too far, though…how are they gonna keep it unnoticed?" I wasn't entirely sure whether he was talking to me or just commenting to himself.

"Who did this, do you know—?"

"There's no point trying to explain it," he interrupted, walking further in the direction I had originally been going. "Just follow me."

I glanced back down at the pitiful form of the unconscious Charmander. I didn't want to risk hurting it by moving it, but what choice did I really have? Was I supposed to just leave it here to die? I hesitated as long as possible, but then finally wrapped my arms around the lizard's limp body, taking care to avoid its tail flame, tiny though it was. Its skin felt raw and sticky against mine and gave off a radiating heat.

The trainer was now just a hazy figure in the distance with all of the soot clouding the air, and I had to jog quickly to catch up with him. "How recently did all of this happen?"

"So recently that it's still happening," was the only response. We reached the edge of a ridge that overlooked an open valley between the forested hills. It was there that I saw what he was talking about.

A brilliant flash of fire tore across the mountainside before stopping suddenly in the middle of the clearing and unleashing a blazing heat wave outward. When the flames cleared, I saw it. A fantastically bizarre beast stood before us, shaking its head and ruffling its long brown mane. The creature surveyed its surrounding intensely, and when it turned in our direction, I couldn't help but stare openmouthed. Its face was, in short, amazing—rimmed by brightly colored crests of red along the side, blue over the muzzle, and a crown of yellow over its eyes. Large sets of spikes jutted outward from the sides of its back, and between them a silky, almost cloud-like tail billowed constantly. Entei, it was called—the Beast of the Volcano. A Legendary Pokémon of Johto…here, right in front of us. I was almost unable to fully take in the amazing sight.

And then suddenly there was a roar of engines to the right. A huge group of jeeps and trucks burst into the clearing, filled with countless armed adults. Entei recoiled backward, pelted by bullets—they were _shooting_ it? The auburn beast slammed its shackled paws to the ground and let loose a massive wave of fire, incinerating everything within the valley. But when the flames cleared, I could see that the jeeps were surrounded by protective force fields. A large group of Pokémon charged forward from behind the vehicles, unleashing torrents of water at their target. Entei stood its ground with a determined glare, but I could still see it wincing in pain as steam poured off its body. I could still hear the fury in its roar as it finally tried to flee, but was somehow prevented from it.

"What…how can they…? Why…?" I stammered.

There was a pause. Then came the reply, "Have you ever heard of Team Rocket?"

The name did seem…familiar. Faint memories of the news surfaced at the back of my mind, but they were obscured by time and the fact that, well, I didn't really pay attention to those things when I was a kid.

"Sort of…why?" I responded.

"It started out as a sort of widespread group of criminal gangsters," he continued, without acknowledging the question. "But then the leader slowly pushed the team towards power and conquest. He recruited hundreds of members from all over Johto, Kanto, and even a few from way out in Hoenn and other regions. There are still some places when their standard street operations are well-known, but that just hides the fact that there's a whole other side to the team that no one knows about." He motioned to the ongoing struggle down in the valley.

I couldn't quite find my words. Everything he had said was kind of overloading my head, and the only thing I could manage was, "How do you know about all of this?"

"Figures that you'd ask that. Let's just say I have my sources. There are quite a few people working against Giovanni from within the team."

"Giovanni?" He couldn't mean…_the_ Giovanni?

"Yeah, he's the leader of the team. The one behind all. You've probably heard of—"

"Of course I've heard of him," I interrupted. How could I _not_ know about the leader of the Viridian Pokémon Gym? "You're saying he's head of Team Rocket?"

He nodded.

I couldn't help staring. "You're serious? Shouldn't more people know about that, then? I mean, if the leader of some huge organization is right under everyone's nose, then—"

"You underestimate the team's influence," he replied with a slight laugh. "They have agents working all over. Turning him in wouldn't do anything. Influencing the police or the media or whatever they need is easy for them."

Well that was…unnerving. Really, what was I supposed to say to that? With a glance back at the blazing hillside, I asked, "Shouldn't we do something? I mean, if we don't—"

"We?" he said, again laughing slightly. "You have a pet bird and a half-dead lizard, so it'd be me doing everything. And I know my limits. The dragons I train may be powerful, but they're not fast enough to dodge repeated fire from the Rockets. They'd be shot down before getting within twenty feet of the battle."

I glanced down at the dying Charmander in my arms, feeling rather miserable about all of this. Really, why did he even bother explaining everything only to flat-out tell me I was useless?

"If you want to help…" he began slowly, with an unusual tone, "then I'll tell you this: with agents all over Johto and Kanto, if Team Rocket really wanted to execute a massive takeover, I'd say it's within their power by now."

I turned towards him in surprise. "_What_?"

"The only reason they haven't already is because they're building up forces in case they had to face an army of trainers united against them. That's why they've taken to capturing Legendary Pokémon. If each Team Rocket faction were headed by a top leader wielding a Legendary, there would be no stopping them," he explained matter-of-factly, as though Team Rocket being on the verge of world conquest was normal, everyday conversation.

I was frozen, unable to process all of this. "…What do we do about that? Why are you telling me this?"

He gave me a very serious look. "Are you interested in helping stop Team Rocket's Legendary project? Would you be willing to fight them?"

I stared. How exactly was I supposed to fight them, and how did he expect me to? Didn't he just say that there was no way I could help? I kept waiting for him to say something like "it would be nice if it were possible," but his expression was cold and unflinching.

"How…what do you mean?" I asked.

"If you were able to stop Team Rocket from catching Legendaries, would you?"

I wanted to say "well, who wouldn't?" but that didn't quite seem like a very good answer. I found myself simply nodding.

He considered me for a while before reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out a small card. "I've been giving these out to a lot of people," he said, handing it to me. "If you really want to stop them…this will explain what you need to know. Once you become a trainer, let me know and I'll tell you more."

"But how—?" I began.

"The card explains everything," he said again. "Don't lose it, and don't reveal it."

He pulled out a red and white sphere and pushed a button on it, causing it to enlarge and open. In an instant, a flash of white light burst forth from inside it and began to take the form of a huge dragon, upright and majestic. Shiny, flaming orange-colored scales covered most of its thickly muscled body, save for a massive pair of blue wings. I widened my eyes—it was a Charizard, the fully evolved form of Charmander. This was the first time I had seen one in person.

He replaced the Poké Ball and climbed up onto the dragon's back. It flexed its wings and outstretched them, flapping against the air and sending flurries of soot into my face. I shielded my eyes reflexively until the reptile had ascended high enough.

"I'll see ya," the trainer said before soaring out of sight.

"Er, later," I said more to myself than him, wondering how and why I'd see him later. I looked at the small card he had given me and read.

If you have received this card, it is because you have been recognized as either a beginning trainer with the potential for skill, or an ambitious young trainer willing to face danger for the sake of stopping Team Rocket. If you are serious about joining a rebellion against the Rockets, then meet in Vermilion City prior to the following date for further instruction. The cruise ship, S.S. Anne departs on July 10.

Talk about being vague. Still, it made sense, just in case Team Rocket got a hold of one of the cards. But was he really just giving them out to random trainers? Why was he doing this? And how on earth had I gotten myself mixed up in all of this?

I turned back to the battle that was still continuing. Everything about it was completely mind-boggling. The ridiculously powerful fire beast was still struggling to ward off its attackers, but I could tell that its strength was waning. I still found myself wanting to help Entei _somehow_, even though I knew I couldn't do anything. It was frustrating, and I felt stupid about it. With a sigh, I sat down and continued to watch.

And then it happened. The Rockets and Entei were now only about a hundred yards away from where I was sitting. One of the jeeps near the front of the formation suddenly broke from the group and began speeding up the hill in my direction. I stared stupidly at the vehicle racing towards me, unable to quite work though what it meant.

"Crap… Crap—don't tell me they…" My eyes widened as the realization hit me like a brick.

I'd been spotted. And they were coming for me.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Reinforcements**

I immediately took off back the way I had come, my mind racing. They were coming for me—why were they coming for me? Swift flew alongside me as I sprinted though the woods, still completely floored by what was going on. I could feel my heart pounding and my lungs burning as I choked on ash, but the sudden burst of fear kept me running onward. I threw a glance over my shoulder—I wasn't running nearly fast enough. They were gaining on me.

My only hope was to reach my bike—nothing was more important than that. If I managed to, then I could make it to town before they caught me and then lose them on the side streets. Just that tiny bit of hope was enough for me, but was I too far away?

I couldn't help looking over my shoulder again, and—they were right behind me. What was I supposed to do now? I wasn't going to make it in time.

The jeep sped past me and skidded to a stop in my path. I tried to turn and run in the other direction, but the driver threw open the door and grabbed me by the back of my shirt.

"Augh, no—stop, damn it—" I yelled, pulling against his hold, but it was no use. The Rocket flung open the back hatch and threw me into the rear of the jeep without saying a word. And then he climbed back into the front seat and drove off as though nothing had happened.

I lay there in a crumpled heap, my heart racing and my breath shallow and my brain still trying to work through how the heck this had just happened. I hadn't meant to be there—I had just sort of…been there. I willed myself as hard as I could to at least sit up and figure out my situation, but nothing in my body would respond for the longest time. Clenching my teeth, I finally managed to shove everything out of my mind for the moment and look over the back seat without drawing attention to myself.

Four…there were four Rockets in the jeep. The driver was tall, burly, and looked older than most of the others—probably more experienced too, judging by a number of badges pinned to his vest. I glanced at his reflection in the rear view mirror—he had thick black hair and dark eyes surrounded by a stern and commanding face. Really, it was intimidating just looking at him; I couldn't help ducking behind the seat right afterwards.

I only just noticed that I was still holding the wounded Charmander. It was still unconscious, but also still alive. I vaguely realized that we were nearing the main streets of Viridian, which came as a surprise—I had thought that we'd have joined up with the group going after Entei. But if we were in Viridian…would it be possible for me to yell for help? No—almost immediately it dawned on me that all of the windows were up now, and each of the Rockets was armed. There was no way out of this.

I clenched my fists hard, mind still reeling from shock. How had I managed to get myself into this? It was the sort of thing you always imagined would happen to someone else. I still found myself trying to come up with something, anything that I could do, even though there was nothing. Nothing—that fact alone was eating at my mind most of all.

After some time, I pulled myself up to look out the window again. We had just passed the outskirts of Viridian, now heading into the forests to the east of the city. And then I noticed that Swift was still flapping his wings quickly to follow the jeep, calling out to me—it was almost a painful sight. Upon seeing that I was watching him, he soared downward to fly alongside the window, apparently unwilling to leave.

"Just go," I mumbled, though he couldn't hear me. "There's nothing you can do…"

I jumped suddenly at the sound of a gunshot and whirled around. To my horror, one of the Rockets had pulled out a small handgun and begun shooting at Swift before the driver stopped him.

"Don't waste your bullets on a Pidgey," he said.

I quickly turned to look out the back window and saw Swift flying high up in the sky. When he seemed sure that the Rockets weren't paying attention to him, he swooped low again and waved his wing at me. I could've sworn I saw him wink once before taking off to the north, toward my neighborhood. I stared after him; part of me couldn't help feeling more alone now. Still…I was confused as to what he planned to do.

Upon reaching a small clearing that had been stripped of tress, the jeep suddenly skidded to a halt. I couldn't see anything more from the back window, and the Rockets in the front seats were blocking my view in front of the car. The driver got out and slammed the door.

I leaned forward to see out the back seat window and watched as he kneeled and lifted up a small hatch in the grass. Underneath were a keypad and a small screen. He pushed in a long and complicated password and pressed his hand against a scanner before closing the hatch.

I was stunned to see the ground starting to sink, revealing a sort of ramp that descended into darkness. He walked back and got into the car again before driving downward. As we neared the end of the tunnel, the entrance behind us closed and I could see lights far ahead in the distance. And then we emerged into an immense, dimly lit underground hangar, filled with trucks, small aircraft, and on the far end, a massive jet. I stared around at it all, realizing now that Team Rocket was every bit as large as the Charizard trainer had implied.

The driver parked the jeep in an area to the side, and the Rockets all exited the vehicle. I watched as the driver walked off toward a side of the hangar, where a heavy computerized door stood. He pulled a card out of his pocked and touched it to the scanner, unlocking it before entering what looked like an office hallway.

And so I was left alone in the jeep. Well, not quite alone, as I quickly realized—the Charmander was still here, after all. I looked down at where I had set it next to me. A tiny flare flickered at the end of its tail, so it was still alive, at least. It probably wouldn't survive much longer though. That fact seemed to make the already bleak situation even worse somehow.

I nearly jumped upward upon hearing a loud bang as a door was thrown open. A young man stormed out wearing an irritated expression, closely followed by the driver, who was looking slightly submissive, which seemed unusual. The former Rocket had to be higher ranking or something. If they were arguing about something, then this would probably be a chance to find out more about my situation, at the very least. Acting more on impulse than anything, I threw myself over the back seats so that I could open the back door slightly and hear them.

"Of course no one ever feels like telling me a damn thing about the mission status," the higher-ranked Rocket snapped. "And what the hell made you think it would be a good idea to grab some random girl who happened to see it? Sure, she reports some poaching of a Legendary Pokémon, big deal. No one would have any idea that it was us. But now she sure as hell knows too much. Honestly, Tyson, I don't even know why I—"

"That's not all," the driver continued significantly, as though trying to defend his decision. "I saw him. The one we've heard rumors about from the new recruits. Course, he was far off so I didn't see what he looked like, but I know_ she_ did."

A very heavy pause followed.

"Don't tell me you're taking that crap seriously?" his superior asked. "I don't know what you've heard, but all _I've_ heard is that some dumbass is going around gathering a bunch of twelve-year-olds against us."

"I heard he was a part of the revolt."

Yet another pause. This time the other Rocket seemed at least slightly intrigued. "So he might know more about us than we figured… But how many others left us that day? Have any of them accomplished much against us? I don't see how this is any—"

At once, I heard the beeping of what sounded like a cell phone. Tyson answered it and proceeded to listen for nearly a minute while his superior watched, still looking a bit irritated. After some time, Tyson gave a short response quietly and hung up.

"Well?" the other Rocket asked impatiently.

"Shortly after I left, for the others it was looking like Entei was going to escape into the Tohjo Mountains. And then—would you believe it?—the Johto Combat Unit showed up. They took control of the situation, and of course one of _their_ agents was the one who threw the ball that caught Entei. Only now he doesn't really want to give it up and he's waiting for instruction from the Commander," Tyson reported.

I felt myself go rigid from shock. They had actually _caught_ it?

"The fool…Giovanni's word isn't enough for him?" his superior muttered scornfully, folding his arms.

Tyson shrugged. "It's the Johto Force. You know how they are."

"Tch…always making their own terms for everything…" he scoffed. "Anyways, we're almost done preparing to transport the experiments to the secondary headquarters for testing, along with the supplies and machinery," the higher ranking Rocket said, jerking a thumb toward the black plane on the far side of the hangar. "Since you're back, and you have a…vested interest in that program, I want you on board." At this point, he let out a sigh. "Now, about the girl…"

"Should I just kill her?" Tyson interrupted. My heart seemingly stopped when he said that.

"Well, if you're convinced that she knows anything, it could be useful…but I don't have time to question her, and I know none of the other Admins do." Rather unexpectedly, he laughed. "I know, this is perfect—most of the head Executives are at the secondary headquarters right now. Stick the girl on the transport jet; let them deal with what to do with her." With that, he walked off to discuss things with some of the other Rockets.

I breathed a sigh of relief after hearing that. My situation hadn't improved, but just knowing that I wasn't dead _yet_ was enough to make me feel better. A few seconds later, however, I noticed that Tyson was coming back toward the jeep. I immediately climbed into the back area and pretended as though I hadn't been doing anything.

"Well, it's your lucky day," he said with a snide grin as he opened the back hatch. "If you keep your head down and answer the Executives' questions, they might not mind letting you go alive after all, though I'm not offering any guarantees." He grabbed me by the wrist and jerked me out of the jeep. I racked my brain for something to do—some sort of resistance to show that I wasn't just some helpless kid. I couldn't think of anything.

"Here," Tyson said, handing me off to one of his subordinates. "Throw her in one of the containment cells on the transport jet. Don't forget all the standard procedures."

"What about the kid's Charmander?" the Rocket asked with a glance back in the jeep.

"That thing isn't dead?" Tyson said, raising an eyebrow. "I don't know…we've got tons of Poké Balls—I'll have someone else put it with the stolen Pokémon."

Tyson walked off in another direction, and the Rocket holding me started to head for the large, black airplane that was in the opposite corner of the hangar. Several mechanics seemed to be making sure everything was in order, and other Rockets were loading supplies into the cargo hold; Tyson's subordinate escorted me in that direction. Large crates of machinery and boxes of various supplies filled the area, and more were being loaded in. The Rocket paused to unlock a panel along the side, and then I was thrown into a small metal room. He proceeded to check that I didn't have any weapons or Poké Balls on me—pretty much the only thing I did have was my wallet.

"So…" he said, flipping through it and pulling out my school ID, "Jade Arenesa, fourteen years old. I'll be sure to get that on file. And…what do we have here?" I felt like kicking myself when I saw him pull out the wad of cash I had stuffed in there. It was my birthday savings, which I'd intended to use on a Pokémon Journey someday, though I had never quite figured out _how_ exactly. A part of me had known all along that it was a stupid idea to carry it around like that, but…there wasn't too much I could do about it now.

After having found the money, the Rocket didn't bother looking through the miscellaneous cards I had in there (most of which weren't very important), and simply tossed the wallet into a bin with what I assumed were other confiscated items. He then chained my hands and feet to the wall before shutting the door.

I lost track of how much time I spent alone in that cell with the only sound being the occasional clunk of more cargo being loaded onto the plane. It was nerve-wracking just standing there drenched in sweat mixed with soot and not knowing how much longer until something happened, or even what _would_ happen. I almost just wanted to get it over with, but then immediately drove the thought from my head when I realized what it meant. I couldn't afford to think like that—I wasn't going to die. I was going to figure a way out of this. Expect…there _was_ no way out. What was I supposed to do?

After what felt like hours, I heard another door shut and then the heavy thunk of what must have been the cargo hatch closing. I tensed up slightly; the air was now filled with the steadily growing roar of engines. I could feel movement—the plane accelerated suddenly and I felt myself slant backward as it sped up the long ramp that exited the hangar. And with that, we were airborne, and I was facing an unknown fate.

I wanted to clear my head of everything, but the thoughts wouldn't leave. What would I have done differently if I had the chance to redo this day? Going into the forest…that was probably the one thing I shouldn't have done. Or maybe following the mysterious trainer I'd met…but if what he said about Team Rocket's position to take over was true…

A sudden clang jarred me from my thoughts. I could hear footsteps nearing my cell and tensed up involuntarily. What did they want now? I had no idea what I expected to see when the cell door handle turned and opened.

…But I definitely wasn't expecting what I did see.

A teenaged boy who looked about a year or two older than me was standing in the doorway. He was about my height, with thick, dirty-blond hair, baggy clothes, and was currently looking rather pleased with himself.

"Hello there," he said. "It looks like I'm rescuing you. My name is Spencer—I think we're gonna be good friends."

I blinked. I had about a million questions, but about the only thing I could say was, "What?"

"That's all the response I get? Boring." He stood aside, allowing a sleek tan-and black-furred beast to step forward in front of him. I recognized it as the final evolution of the fire-type starter Pokémon that trainers from Johto could receive. "Alright Typhlosion, I need you to melt these chains, so we're gonna need it _hot_."

The Typhlosion leaned down onto all fours and grasped a bundle of the chains, holding them behind his head. Suddenly, a blazing ring of fire burst out from the red burners around its neck, torching through the metal with a wave of sparks. The room was instantly filled with sweltering heat.

Still trying to make sense out of this seemingly random turn of events, I asked, "What are you doing here? And how did you know I was here? Who _are_ you?"

"I already told you my name," Spencer said matter-of-factly, folding his arms. "And, uh, I guess if you wanna know how I'm here, you'll have to ask him." He motioned a thumb over his shoulder.

A voice behind him said, "Yeah, Jade, I hope you're happy, because I hadn't planned on getting stuck on some stupid Rocket jet like this."

What. That voice…it couldn't be…

Spencer stepped aside revealing a rather disgruntled Rudy standing in the cargo bay.

"How did _you_ get here?" I asked, completely floored.

He groaned slightly, putting a hand to his face. "Well Spencer needed to find his Pokémon first, and luckily it was the same place they'd taken you, so we snuck on board and then we came here for you."

I would have clapped a hand to my forehead if it hadn't been chained up. "Okay, just…what? That doesn't answer my—how about you actually start at the beginning? How did you know I was here?"

"Alright, alright," Rudy said impatiently, as though details like that didn't matter and he wanted to get them out of the way as quickly as possible. "It's because of Swift. I had walked to your house to show off my license and I saw him pecking the windows in a fuss, and—what's with that look?" My jaw had dropped upon hearing the word "license."

"You got a license. Already?"

"Oh come on. Enough questions already," he said, waving a hand aside. I noticed he wasn't totally paying attention and was preoccupied with staring at the ongoing blaze. The heat from it was starting to become overwhelming.

"Hey, uh, is Typhlosion almost done?" I asked.

Almost right after I had said that, the fire beast extinguished its blaze and pulled the chains apart with a snap, which was a relief. I took a few steps to stretch out my legs, the chains clattering around as I walked.

"Guess you'll have to deal with those for a while," Spencer said as I stepped out of the cell. "Any closer and he'd have melted your hands and feet off."

I didn't really mind—just being free was enough. Really, just them _being_ there was enough to make the entire situation feel better somehow. I wasn't alone in this; with three of us there was no way we wouldn't find some way out.

"So…" I said turning towards Rudy. "Am I even gonna get the full story as to how you got here? And how the heck do you already have a license for that matter?"

"Oh, er…right. See, my dad got home right after you left. He would've been upset with me, except my test results had come in the mail and I passed everything," Rudy said, beaming. "So, my dad took me to the place and he signed the form and I got my license and a Pokémon and everything." He stopped there, but then realized that I was looking at him expectantly, wanting to hear the important part of the story. "But yeah, uh, I went over to your house, and no one was home, and Swift was flying around like crazy. From what I could make out, he was saying you'd been captured or something, so I followed him out into the forest and that's when I ran into Spencer here."

"Yeah, my Pokémon were stolen from me a few days ago," Spencer explained. "I'd been scoping out the entrance to the hideout for a few days, but I had no idea how I was ever gonna get inside. Rudy showed up in the area, and then about an hour later a bunch of jeeps were returning to the base, so we took the chance to sneak in behind 'em.

I stared, impressed. "You guys snuck into a Rocket base? What was your plan?"

"No plan, really. Just kind of improvising, y'know?" Spencer said, laughing awkwardly. My face fell somewhat. Okay, so maybe my newfound ally wasn't the most competent.

"We hung out by a cargo area where we could avoid being seen, but still hear what all the passing Rockets were talking about," he explained. "Then I overheard stuff about transporting Pokémon and supplies and a prisoner."

"And just _look_ at this awesome mess it's gotten us all into," Rudy added, half-jokingly, half-accusingly.

"You didn't have to come and get me," I said, a little bit insulted, even if it were true that he wouldn't have been in this mess had it not been for me.

He sighed. "I didn't know any of this would happen, so that doesn't matter now. We're here now. This Team Rocket crew sounds like bad news, so we've gotta do something."

Easy for him to say. He hadn't seen how dangerous they could be.

"Well…" I said, "I guess we're not really in any danger right now, so we've got time to plan."

"Exactly. Anyways, why don't we start by screwing up as much of the crap on this plane as possible." I couldn't help noticing that Rudy had almost exactly the attitude that the Charizard trainer had been looking for in his anti-Rocket recruits.

With a glance around at the crates surrounding us, I replied, "Screw up things _how_? I don't think we can just go around blowing up random crap while _flying_."

"Well, for one thing…what do we do about the rest of the stolen Pokémon?" Spencer asked, motioning towards an open box filled with Poké Balls. "I already got mine back, and—"

"Hey wait, that's right!" I exclaimed, running over to the box. "I had a Charmander with me before I was captured. It should be in there!"

Now it was Rudy's turn to gape incredulously. "You have a _Charmander_? What in the…how?"

"I found it out on Route 22, where I got captured. It's…kind of a long story." I shifted through some of the Poké Balls in dismay. "How am I ever gonna figure out which one it's in?"

"Here," Spencer said, pulling out his Pokédex and opening it. I watched in fascination as he held the Poké Balls one by one up to the scanning lens on the side. After about twenty or so of them, he announced, "Here we go. Low-level, unregistered Charmander. Heh, it's asking if I want to register it to myself. And, uh…its energy is _reeaally_ low. I know in school they like to stress how you have to weaken the Pokémon before catching it, but come on now."

"I didn't catch it," I said a bit defensively, despite his joking tone. "It was really close to dying when I found it. I've got to like…find some healing items or something." I turned to gaze vaguely around all the supply boxes in the cargo hold.

"Alright. You fix your Charmander, I'll go see if I can find anything useful," Rudy said, taking the opportunity to wander off. I could have sworn I heard him mumble, "We should totally set some of this junk on fire _at least_."

I headed in the opposite direction, opening boxes and scanning their contents as I went. I had originally been unsure what the jet was intended to transport, but it was seemingly for almost anything. Most of the crates were filled with heavy machinery and old computerized devices, but then others were packed with battle enhancements for Pokémon or stronger variations of the Poké Ball. Finally I scored—a box near the front of the plane was packed with medical supplies. I picked up the first thing I could find and read the label.

"'Full Restore: Guaranteed to soothe burns, frostbite, poison, rashes, close open wounds, and heal any other damage done to your Pokémon'…sounds great." I noticed the rather unappealing suggested price of 3000p—good thing I wasn't buying it.

I held out the Charmander's Poké Ball and carefully pressed the button on its center, making it split open down the middle and let loose a burst of white light that quickly condensed into the fire lizard's unconscious form. It shivered slightly, but looked to be in the same condition it had been earlier.

I kneeled down and sprayed the liquid all over the Charmander's skin. The lizard flinched slightly, but soon enough, the charred flesh slowly regained its normal color, leaving only small scabs in some areas on its back. It was amazing how easily Pokémon could heal; that was the only reason why the League could make Pokémon Centers free. Still, it wasn't enough that the Charmander's injuries were gone, as it was still exhausted and drained of power.

"Hey Spencer!" I called out. "Do you know the name of the stuff that fully heals energy?"

"Hyper Potion?" he said, in a tone that sounded more like he was asking me.

"Not injuries. _Energy_."

"Oh right…uh, I think it's called Elixir? Never used one before—I haven't seen them sold anywhere."

I dug through the box some more. "Got it," I said, pulling out a yellow bottle labeled "Max Elixir." I flipped the cap open and poured a small amount into the fire Pokémon's mouth. Almost in an instant, the tiny flare on its tail burst into full flame. Slowly, it opened its bright blue eyes and managed to stand to its feet.

"Hey, how're ya feeling?" I asked it.

It turned suddenly toward me in alarm. The lizard gave a light whimper and glanced around nervously, as though wondering how it had gotten there.

"This is probably a pretty big shock. And, uh…you're probably wondering how you got here. I didn't mean to take you from your home. It's just that—you were…sort of…dying," I finished lamely. The Charmander showed no real reaction to my words. Could it even understand me? As a wild Pokémon, it might never have heard human speech before.

"Can you understand me?" I asked.

It stared, apparently confused at my confusion. "*Yes…*" it said slowly, in a tone suggesting that it found the question to be very strange.

"Well, uh, okay—so you've been around humans before. Have you ever been named?"

The fire lizard gave me a long, quiet stare, something shifting in its eyes. After several seconds' hesitation it replied, "*Firestorm.*"

"Alright then," I said. "So, are you male or female?" I wasn't quite sure if this was an offensive question or not, but I really wasn't used to Pokéspeech enough to tell a Pokémon's gender by its voice.

"*Male,*" he answered simply.

I nodded, not really sure what else to ask him. After having gotten over his initial shock, Firestorm was looking surprisingly unconcerned with having been taken from his home, and not even very curious about his situation.

"*Are you a Pokémon Trainer?*" he spoke all of a sudden, the words a bit more difficult for me to understand than the previous one-word statements.

I debated over what to say in response, but before I got a chance to answer, I heard Rudy call out, "Hey Jade, come check this out!"

I stood to my feet and motioned to the Charmander to follow, though I supposed he didn't really have to—it wasn't like he belonged to me or anything. After navigating back through the maze of boxes, I found Rudy and Spencer, the former sitting on the ground and undoing the latches on a long metal case.

"Oh hey," Spencer said, giving a small wave. "Normally I'd say that warnings are meant to be ignored, but I don't know about this." He looked skeptically down at Rudy.

I stared blankly. "Huh?"

"Check it out," Rudy said, holding up the case. Engraved on the top in sleek lettering were the words "Poké Ball Containment Unit." Beneath that, a label read, "Caution: Experimental Pokémon are extremely unstable and must be kept in the containment unit at all times unless removed by an experiment handler."

"Experimental Pokémon?" I said incredulously. Then again, Tyson's superior had mentioned something like that…

"Yeah, yeah! Just think—these could be like, super-powerful mutant Pokémon. If we used _them_ to fight the Rockets, we'd be able to get out of this for sure!" Rudy said excitedly.

I hesitated. "That…does seem like our best chance to get out of here, but…we don't even know if they'll listen to—hey, don't let them out now!" I yelled frantically. He had opened the case, revealing several black Poke Balls encased in holders, each labeled with info on the experiment within.

"I'm just looking," Rudy countered. "I'm not gonna let them out. ...Huh, these are weird looking, aren't they?" He pulled one of the black spheres out of its holder and rotated it in his hand.

"Okay, okay, just wait. We're not gonna have to fight until this plane lands, wherever it's going. Spencer, how many Pokémon have you got?"

"Six," he replied, posing importantly. "Typhlosion here is the strongest, but the rest are pretty powerful too."

"Alright, that's good since, uh…Rudy and I will be pretty useless in a fight." It felt rather lame to admit.

"Hey, what do you mean? I've got two Pokémon," Rudy shot back.

I clapped a hand to my forehead. "Don't be stupid, these Rockets are dangerous."

"How about when the plane lands, we confuse the experiments into attacking the Rockets, and then we run away during the commotion?" Spencer interjected.

"How do we do that—?"

Out of nowhere, an explosion of black light suddenly shot out from within our circle, knocking the three of us backward into a pile of boxes. I sat up shakily, completely stunned. What on earth had just happened?

Spencer looked about as flustered as I felt. "Okay, just…what was _that_?"

I glanced around rapidly, my eyes falling on Rudy, toppled over in a heap with his eyes wide, clutching an opened Poké Ball.

"What did you…?" I gasped.

"I didn't open it, I swear!" he yelled back. "It—it let itself out!"

"Wait, where's the experiment?" Spencer cut in frantically.

The three of us whirled around in a panic, all eyes falling on the Pokémon that had appeared behind us. A jagged, lightning bolt-shaped tail twitched. Four paws slowly lifted a small, golden-furred mouse off the floor. No…it couldn't be…

"It's…it's a Pikachu?" Spencer blurted out, stifling a laugh. "_A Pikachu_?"

Except something looked…off…about it. It was missing the familiar red cheek markings. And…the fur on its head was long and stiffly pointed, almost like feathers. And then its eyes suddenly snapped open, revealing a pair of fiercely intense brown irises.

I hesitated. "Guys…I don't think—"

A flood of lightning surged out of the rodent's body at once as it bolted up to the highest point it could find and sent waves of electricity flying around.

"Let me see that!" I shouted, practically shoving Rudy out of the way so I could get a look at the label on the case holder its ball had been kept in.

Experimental Pokémon 009: Possesses increased power intensity and rebellious disposition as a result of Zapdos heritage. Hybrid categorized a failure due to undersized power capacity, unstable chemical makeup, and immunity to traditional experiment control procedures.

My face fell with dread. "This thing was mixed with the legendary _Zapdos_."

"What? No way… That is _awesome_!" Rudy exclaimed.

"Hey, focus! If we don't stop it, it could end up taking down the plane!"

"Er, right, I'll put it back in the ball—"

The Pikachu turned suddenly at the sound of our voices and sent a string of lightning flying in our direction, shattering the black Poké Ball before any of us could do anything. I gaped in horror—what were we supposed to do now? Firestorm clutched at my leg fearfully. Typhlosion leapt in front of our group and snarled defensively, igniting its neck blaze.

And then, in the midst of all this, I heard the sound of a door opening.

"WHAT. THE. EVER. LIVING. _HELL_?"

My stomach sank even lower than it had been before as I turned to see an extremely pissed-off Tyson standing in the doorway to the cargo area, his jaw hanging open from shock.

"Uhh, hey…" Spencer said awkwardly. "Could you just leave for a bit? We kind of have a situation here."

Tyson stared at us in a sort of stupefied rage before turning his gaze on the experimental Pikachu and clenching his teeth. He then pulled one of the black Poké Balls from his belt and opened it. The flash of light from within took the form of a huge green mantis with an exoskeleton that was plated like armor. Its blank, pupil-less eyes flared mindlessly from a vaguely reptilian head. It flashed its impressive scythe-lined arms, seemingly cutting the very air. The Pikachu glared at the Scyther, its eyes wide with what looked like a combination of anger and dread.

"Thought you'd play with the hybrids did you?" Tyson asked, sneering. "Then have fun facing the strongest of them. Razors, attack!"

The three of us sat there, frozen in horror as the blade-armed nightmare of a Pokémon shot toward us, too fast to even see.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Clash of the Experiments**

We didn't even get a chance to move. The Pikachu immediately took off bounding down the crates and streaked across the steel floor like a bullet, cutting off Razors with a string of lightning. The mantis darted out of the way at the last second and immediately whirled around to slice at the other experiment, only to find that it was now out of reach. Both combatants raced around with such blazing speed, narrowly avoiding the other, that it was almost impossible to follow the action.

I stood there blankly, unable to believe our luck. The Pikachu was willing to fight Tyson that fiercely…even if it wasn't actually trying to help us. Just minutes ago, it had seemed like we'd be better off if the Pikachu was taken out of the fight, but now I wasn't so sure. If the Pikachu was able to defeat Tyson…

"Scyythaaar!" Razors cried, slicing boxes in two. In its rush to attack the Pikachu, it was shredding through everything in its path. The electric rat bounded away just as the Scyther slashed apart the crate it had been standing on, sending a wave of debris flying toward us.

"Whoa! We'd better hide behind here, quick," Spencer called out, ducking into a corner behind a mound of crates. "You know, if we want to keep our heads and all."

"What should we do?" I asked, trying not to sound too panicked.

"Er…I was actually hoping you'd have a plan…" he said sheepishly.

Great, so both of us were relying on the other, who was equally clueless.

"Ugh, what does it matter?!" Rudy exclaimed. "We're not gonna get anywhere by just hiding!" Before I could protest, he pulled out a pair of Poké Balls and opened them, allowing both of his Pokémon to appear before us. I wasn't surprised to see the familiar black firedog taking shape, or her subsequent attempt to tackle me. What caught me off-guard was the small, bright blue turtle now standing next to us—not that I really had time to question what the heck he was doing with a Squirtle.

"Oh hey, you should probably take this," Rudy said, handing me a Poké Ball unexpectedly. "I had to put Swift in a ball before sneaking on board, or else just leave him outside."

"This is Swift's Poké Ball?" I asked, looking down at it in surprise.

"Well, yeah—it can't be used on any other Pokémon now so you might as well take it," Rudy explained. "Now, come on! We've got to battle our way out of this!"

"What are we supposed to do?" I asked, throwing my arms in the air out of frustration. "We'll just end up getting our Pokémon killed! We've got to leave this to Typhlosion, okay?"

Rudy paused, slowly gaining a look on his face as if the thought of losing the battle honestly hadn't occurred to him. He turned away sharply, clenching his fists in frustration. It was weird seeing him so determined to do something, even in a situation like this. It might not have been the smartest idea, but still…

I noticed Spencer duck around the corner, motioning to Typhlosion, who leapt forward to get into an attack position where it would still be concealed amongst the blackened remains of boxes that now littered the makeshift battlefield. And then all of a sudden, I felt a tugging on my leg and looked down to see Firestorm standing alongside me. I was hit with a twinge of guilt—I had forgotten he was even here.

"Yeah? What is it?" I asked him

He didn't seem to know how to say it. He kept glancing up at me, then towards the raging battle… I couldn't help noticing the conviction in his expression.

"What, you want to help? No, no no no, that's not—I mean, it's great if you want to help and all, but that's a bad idea, trust me. You wouldn't stand a…well, they're too strong; I don't think we should get in their way."

Firestorm looked down and nodded vaguely. So now even _he_ wanted to help in some small way. I wasn't the only useless one here, but I was the only one who had just given up on being able to do anything. That realization was aggravating.

Another blast of lightning dragged my attention back to the ongoing battle, where Tyson was barking orders constantly to his Pokémon, which couldn't seem to land a hit on the Pikachu.

"Stupid experiment," Tyson spat. "I don't have _time_ to wait for it to wear itself down. Really wish I was allowed to kill that thing, after all it's put me through."

The Pikachu, however, was quickly starting to wear out. It sparked uncontrollably and gasped for breath, struggling to stay in the fight. The fire was now all but gone from its face; it almost looked…desperate. It was a strange contrast to the way it had looked just minutes earlier, and I couldn't help feeling a sudden twinge of pity. It had been raised as a lab specimen before finally being disregarded as a failure. Was this mad blitz just out of trying to get free?

The Scyther continued to hack away mercilessly, responding instantly to Tyson's every command with an amount of precision that was almost scary. And then a sudden burst of flames shot toward Razors! The mantis was stuck head-on by the blaze, recoiling backward in pain. Yes! Typhlosion had landed a direct hit! There was no way the Scyther could withstand that…but even as I watched, it stood up and turned sharply in Typhlosion's direction, preparing to leap at it.

"No, damn it, ignore them!" Tyson shouted, lunging out of the way of a lightning burst that surged toward him the second Razors had let down his guard. The experimental Scyther obeyed instantly and pressed the attack against the Pikachu once more, while its trainer pulled out two more black Poké Balls.

Spencer clenched his fist. "Well, crap. I thought that would be, well…super effective."

"I…I don't get it…how did it withstand an attack like that? I thought Scyther were weak to fire," I muttered, still staring in shock.

"We're up against freaking hybrids, what did you expect?" Rudy exclaimed like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

With that attack's failure, there wasn't much else we could do while still hiding back behind the wall of supplies. I heard Tyson yell, "Afraid to come out from your little hidey hole? That's fine by me, Razors isn't my only experiment!" followed by the sound of him opening the other two Poké Balls, but then—

Lightning flew wild. The Pikachu let out a cry and sent waves of electricity flying all around—it didn't seem to appreciate the other experiments' arrival. Seizing the chance, Razors streaked toward it, blades flashing—but then suddenly Typhlosion took the opportunity to shoot another spurt of burning flame at Razors. The Scyther stopped just short of slicing the Pikachu to attempt to avoid the Flamethrower attack.

The Pikachu turned and refocused its attention on Razors and finally was able to hit the Scyther with all its power. Caught in the middle, Razors was struck by both the fire and lightning, despite its incredible speed.

"Scyy!" it cried out pitifully, dropping to the floor in pain.

"Yeah, we got it!" Spencer exclaimed, turning towards me and looking extremely relieved. "I was really starting to worry there, y'know?"

Tyson pulled out the Scyther's Poké Ball and recalled it, swearing again before directing his other experiments to refocus their attention on the Pikachu now that Razors was down. I hadn't even really paid any attention to them until this point, having been occupied with the rest of the chaos going on. I caught sight of the Pikachu hammering away at a Rhydon with its tail, which gave an oddly metallic clang with each strike. The rock-armored beast had its arms out in a defensive position, looking like it could endure the hits all day, while a spiky brown blur shot around the scene, landing small hits on the Pikachu that seemed to be adding up quickly.

"So, strong enough to take down my best Pokémon?" Tyson called out. "You're more of a nuisance that I originally gave you credit for."

"Razors was your best guy? Awesome, that means we're in charge now," Spencer said, standing up. "Tell the pilot to land this thing. Anywhere is fine; we're not picky about the location."

That pretty much sent Tyson over the edge. "What the hell are you even _doing_ here?!" he roared. "I don't have time to take this crap from you!"

I glanced over at Spencer just in time to see his eyes widen suddenly, and then found myself shoved out of the way as he lunged back behind our hiding spot in a panic; at the same time, a long bang filled the area. Had—had Tyson just—?

"He _shot_ at me?" Spencer blurted out, picking himself up off the ground and looking completely floored. I couldn't do anything but stare back. "He actually shot at me. I mean, I shouldn't be surprised, but…yeah, I…I wasn't ready for that. Er…Typhlosion, stay behind cover and only use your long-range moves," he added distractedly.

"_Fine_, keep hiding, it doesn't matter!" Tyson spat, motioning to one of his Pokémon. "Back there, kill them!"

The spiky brown blur instantly ceased its battle with the Pikachu, and in that second I finally got a chance to identify it as a shaggy furred rat, which bared its teeth at us before shooting forward, again too fast to see. He was using a Raticate? And for that matter, how the heck was it so fast?! Before I had even finished that thought, it had cleared the distance between us before getting deflected by Typhlosion, who had curled into a ball of flames and collided with it head on. With that, it would be impossible for the Raticate to get any hits on the fire beast without suffering a Flame Wheel in return. But what could it do once the experiment targeted _us_ instead?!

Spencer seemed to realize this at the same time I did. "Backup, backup, definitely time for backup," he muttered quickly, fumbling with the Poké Balls on his belt. He grabbed the first two he could get his hands on and opened them. His first Pokémon, an Electabuzz, gave a swish of its striped tail the second it appeared and began swinging its heavy arms in a windmill motion, causing sparks to leap off the prongs on its head. Alongside it stood a Pokémon I couldn't recognize off the top of my head—a gray wolf with long capes of black fur running down its back. Its yellowish eyes held a bit of uncertainty, but it crouched defensively, ready to fight just the same.

"I thought you had six Pokémon," Rudy said, sounding a bit let down.

"We'd be starting one crazy party if I let out all six of my guys. I don't think the plane can handle that many fighters—this battle's probably dangerous enough as it is."

Spencer motioned forward and his two Pokémon got into a defensive position on either side of us, ready to lash out at the experiment if it dared to come close. The Raticate shot forward, recoiling backward when it was faced the ball of fire Typhlosion had surrounded itself in.

And then I caught sight of its eyes, which sent a shiver running through me. They had an eerily blank and soulless look to them, almost like there was nothing there. And come to think of it—the Scyther's movements had been too fast for me to get a good look at it, but now I could almost swear that it also had that mindless look. What was the deal with these Pokémon?

While I had been staring at the ongoing action, Rudy had taken the opportunity to duck out of the small area of protection Typhlosion could give us, returning almost as quickly and dragging a box by its corner.

"What was that for?" I gasped, surprised at him.

"Well come on, it had just been sitting over there—I've been wanting to grab it for the past five minutes or so," he said, proceeding to dig through its contents.

Really, couldn't he _ever_ explain anything in a straightforward way? Before I could reply, however, I noticed the "Technical Machine" stamp on the side of the box and realized the obvious usefulness of the box. He was now sifting through a massive pile of discs, each of them designed to teach a different Pokémon move.

"I'm tired of sitting on the sidelines," Rudy continued, occasionally pulling out a disc and looking it over before throwing it back in the box. "I know my Pokémon wouldn't stand a chance if they got hit,"—the words sounded painful for him to admit—"but if I use these to give them sweet moves and have them attack from behind cover like Spencer's doing, they might have a shot." I had to admit that it was a really good idea. We were completely surrounded by the Rockets' supplies—using them to our advantage would be a major help.

I noticed Rudy grin widely all of a sudden, pulling out a blue TM. "Dude, _Surf_—I've gotta teach this to Squirtle." He fumbled with the buttons on the disc's case, but nothing happened. "Hey…it's not working."

"Isn't Surf a locked move? Like, you can only use it if you've registered a certain number of badges?" I wasn't really sure of it myself, but it sounded right, in any case.

"Tch, well it was worth a shot," Rudy said, tossing it back into the box before digging through the TMs again. "Hey Jade, bet you'll be more excited to see _this_," he said, holding up a TM with a glossy red case and the words "Series 5: No.38" written on the front. I blinked, unsure of how I was supposed to respond.

"It's Fire Blast," he said, pointing out the writing on the side. "Now hurry up and use it on Charmander before I take it and use it on Ebony." I took it, unable to come up with a reply. It hadn't even occurred to me that this plan was something I could do too.

At this point, Spencer was glancing back at us to see what we were up to. "Are those _TMs_?" he said in surprise. His eyes went wide as he grabbed a yellow Series 2 disc from the top of the pile. "I thought they stopped making these! I always wanted to teach Thunderpunch to Typhlosion." We all jumped suddenly at the sound of the Raticate's Swift colliding with Electabuzz's barrier—a startling reminder of the battle that was still raging.

"Er, that is, I'll use it once there's a better chance," Spencer said, laughing nervously before motioning to his Pokémon. "Electabuzz, Thunderpunch; Mightyena, Crunch!"

In the midst of the ongoing battle, only adding to the chaos, the experimental Pikachu had given up on trying to get at Tyson and was now letting loose strings of lightning at anyone that came too close. At this point it almost looked like it couldn't even hold the electricity in its body anymore. Sparks shot out from its fur as it gasped for breath...come to think of it, each of its attacks had been less powerful than the one before it. It honestly seemed like it had worn itself out solely by running out of power, not by getting hit by its opponents. The Pikachu made one last attempt to jump over the Pokémon and blast them all but came up with nothing but sparks. It fell to the ground and collapsed off to the side of the cargo bay.

I stared at it for a while as the battle raged on behind me. At first the experiment had seemed like our only hope, then more like a violent wild card in the ensuing battle. I couldn't help sort of feeling bad for it, and what it must have gone through to have ended up like this. Not that whatever I felt for it made any difference but still…

Time seemed to crawl as I cautiously edged toward the experimental Pikachu. I couldn't quite explain why I was doing it…I just was. Its ears twitched suddenly when I got about five feet away from it. I flinched instinctively, but…it was out of electricity—there wasn't much it could do to me now. The Pikachu turned toward me with a fierce glare and attempted to generate power for an attack but came up with nothing but sparks.

"What're you doing?" Rudy said, walking over. "Didn't you see how crazy and powerful that thing is?"

"It's out of power," I said, slightly defensive. "And it's not like it's on Tyson's side or anything. The Rockets just tossed it off as a failure, so we might be able to—"

To my surprise, the Pikachu suddenly jerked its upper body off the floor, angrily yelling, "Pikaa'pi, pikapi 'chuu pipiika—"

"Hey, hey, wait, talk slower!" I replied lamely, unable to sort through the Pokéspeech quickly enough in my head.

I honestly hadn't expected it to pay attention to my protest, but amazingly, it stopped talking and gave me a skeptical glare before saying, slowly and deliberately, "*First of all, I'm a male, not an 'it.' And I don't need your sympathy, human. This is my problem, not yours, so stay out of it.*"

"It's not like we _asked_ to be involved in this," I shot back, a little annoyed. I was just trying to help him…and admittedly hoping that he would help us in return.

The Pikachu didn't reply. In fact, he was mostly ignoring me by now, staring transfixed at the front of the plane with a pained look on his face. "*It's the only way I can stop them…*" he muttered distantly before pulling himself to his feet and leaping away.

"Wait, come back!" I yelled, but he continued to race forward toward the front of the plane.

I stood there blankly, lost for what to do now. I hoped he knew what he was doing…cause I sure didn't know what I was doing. It was starting to feel really awkward just standing there and watching the ongoing battle, unable to help at all.

"So…think it's gonna help us?" Rudy spoke up all of a sudden.

I shrugged. It was all I could really think of to reply.

And then suddenly we were all knocked off our feet and sent crashing into the floor. It took me a while to realize that it felt like the plane had been violently turned in another direction, before somewhat leveling out. Shakily, I tested standing to my feet just in time to get a glance at Tyson storming off to the front of the plane, yelling an incoherent mess of swears. He threw open the cockpit door and was about to rant some more but stopped short.

"Wha…what the—?!"

I couldn't resist stepping over to get a view of what was going on—the pilot was knocked out on the floor, and the Pikachu was in his seat, rapidly pushing as many buttons as he possibly could.

"Number Nine, get the _hell_ out of here!" Tyson yelled.

The Pikachu glared at him and swore fiercely before letting sparks cover his body. Sparks…if he had charged up even a bit of power in the past few minutes… Tyson realized what this meant at about the same time as I did.

"No, wait!" he yelled, lunging forward and slamming a button with his fist.

Strings of lightning suddenly flew over the control board, involuntarily let loose from the Pikachu's hands. Showers of sparks filled the cockpit, forcing Tyson to recoil backward, looking infuriated.

"You stupid rat!" Tyson spat. "You almost blew the controls with the plane on manual! We'd all be dead now if I hadn't switched to autopilot!" The Pikachu showed no reaction and his face seemed blank of emotion.

"Are we gonna crash?!" Spencer called out.

"No we're not, now shut the hell up!" Tyson roared back, apparently trying to concentrate on a plan.

The Pikachu's ears twitched at those words. He stared downward with a pained look on his face, then suddenly took off running out of the cockpit.

And then, for whatever reason, it hit me. Had…had he _wanted_ us to crash?

Tyson's eyes widened instantly. He seemed to realize what was going on the second that I did. "No, damn it, stop that thing now!"

The Pikachu raced past us and continued towards the back of the jet. Without thinking, I ran after him, not even sure what was driving my legs forward.

"No, don't, please!" I yelled, not knowing what else to do.

He paused all of a sudden. No way…had he actually listened to me?

For some time no one moved. Then, without warning, he shot towards Spencer's Electabuzz in an instant.

"What is he—?" I gasped.

"Er, Electabuzz, stop it!" Spencer called out confusedly.

The striped beast threw up its arms defensively and let loose a blast of lightning from its palms right in the experiment's face. The Pikachu didn't even attempt to dodge—the electricity enveloped him, and he cried out in pain, his arms spread wide. But then, it didn't look like anything was happening. He just stood there, taking the attack like it was what he'd wanted. Electabuzz looked back at Spencer confusedly and released his hold over the lightning—the rest of the blast seemed to flow into the Pikachu's body. His eyes snapped open in an instant with newfound intensity, and he took off again.

"Did…did he just _absorb_ the lightning?" I muttered in awe. No one else said anything. None of us knew what to do now. Tyson's Raticate shot past us in a blur, but even with its insane speed there was no way it could catch up. The Pikachu looked back at us with…almost an apologetic look and drew more energy from within himself than should have been possible. Then with a blinding neon flash, he fired all of his power into one massive lightning bolt and collapsed.

Everything happened so fast—it was hard to process all of it. First lightning, and then an explosion ripping through the back of the plane, causing the air in the plane to rush out the hole and forcefully pulling all of us toward it. Before I could even think about what was going on, Spencer whipped out a Poké Ball to release an icy white seal. Its horn shone with a bright blue light as a wave of water streamed forward from its mouth. The instant the flames burning from the explosion had been doused, the Dewgong fired a glowing beam from its horn that completely sealed the gaping hole with huge, glittering ice crystals.

I stared openmouthed. "That…that was quick thinking."

"Yeah? It happens sometimes," Spencer said, rubbing the back of his head before turning to his Dewgong. "Awesome job," he said, recalling it.

Except…the opening may have been closed, but that didn't change the fact that the jet was missing an engine. I sprinted over to the window; we were quickly losing altitude. I whirled around, desperately hoping that Tyson actually had some way of making sure we didn't crash. There _had_ to be a backup plan, right?!

On the other side of the plane, Tyson quickly made his way over to a control panel on the wall that I hadn't noticed until now, his pace hurried yet controlled, like he had an idea of how to handle this situation. He opened the panel and proceeded to press several of the buttons, his teeth clenched in concentration.

All of a sudden, large rockets on the wings turned on, bursting out jets of stored energy. The plane rocked slightly, but then slowly began to even out, though it was still descending slowly. Tyson gave a sigh of relief before glancing in our direction and sneering.

"Not so hidden anymore, huh…" he commented to himself. His words had a menacing air.

It hit me immediately—after all of the commotion, we weren't behind cover anymore, and that meant… I turned towards Spencer frantically, but he didn't seem concerned—why not?! I glanced back at Tyson; he had just pulled out his gun, but then—I couldn't do anything but stare dumbfounded as Typhlosion leapt out of nowhere and grabbed Tyson in a bear hug, knocking the gun aside in the process.

"What? Just…what?" I said stupidly.

"Hey, that worked even better than I expected," Spencer said, giving a massive sigh of relief. "It's always great when that happens, y'know?"

I stared. "How…how did you…?"

"Well I knew we'd never get anywhere with him having a gun and all, so with all the insanity that the Pikachu caused, I told Typhlosion to hide and take him down the first chance he got,"

I couldn't think of anything to say. I was too shocked by how much the tables had turned in our favor with just that one move.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?! Do you have any idea who you're _dealing_ with?!" Tyson raged, struggling against Typhlosion's hold.

"I think we're dealing with someone I just _beat_," Spencer said. "You should probably recall your Pokémon now, it'll make things easier."

Typhlosion flexed his claws threateningly to emphasize the point, letting wave of heat start to shimmer around them. Clenching his teeth, Tyson managed to unclip the Poké Balls from his belt and recall his Pokémon in twin beams of black energy.

"So, how about you tell us if there's any chance we can land this thing," Spencer said simply.

Tyson glared. At first it seemed like he wasn't going to say anything, but after several seconds, he replied, his words extremely slow as if it were painful just talking to us. "The wing rockets are too weak to make it as far as the base where we would have been landing—they don't run off jet fuel. They're only for emergencies."

"Eh, well, the Rocket base didn't sound fun. Anyways, you should probably figure out if we can land it anywhere else."

I know I would have flinched if I'd been at the receiving end of the venomous glare that followed. But still…he obviously must have realized that his only chance at surviving also meant saving us as well. Taking a deep breath, he said, "I can slow us down using the emergency control panel here. If I scan the areas ahead of us with my GPS to see if there's any clearings wide enough within the distance we can make it before we run out of power…we might have a chance at making a rough landing, at least."

"Alright, sounds like you've got it under control. Typhlosion, you be his wingman, m'kay?" Despite Spencer's bright tone, Typhlosion understood the serious intent behind the request, and released his hold, while still keeping a menacing eye on Tyson.

"And that's that," Spencer said rather matter-of-factly, walking back to me and Rudy.

I couldn't do anything but stare openmouthed, still unable to believe it. "I…you…I can't figure you out, you know that?" I said, unable to keep from laughing. "That's it, then. We'll be miles away from any other Rockets when we land—there'll be nothing stopping us from getting out of here." The shock was wearing off and my voice got more and more excited with each passing moment. I just couldn't believe we'd done it.

We had won. Well, Spencer had, anyway.

"See, Jade?" Rudy said, elbowing me lightly in the side. "Told we'd be able to get out of this."

I couldn't help laughing slightly in a relieved sort of way. "You never had to see what the Rockets could really do…but I'm glad."

Still overwhelmed by the turn of events, I found my way over to the nearest crate that hadn't been smashed, grateful to finally have a chance to breathe. I lay there for I don't know how long, the adrenaline dying down and that crushing feeling of certain death finally disappearing. We were going to make it. Now I supposed the only problem was figuring out what to do once we landed.

Eh, I'd worry about it when we landed.

Rudy had gone back to digging through the TM box for more moves to power his Pokémon up. It made me realize that I hadn't even used the Fire Blast TM on Firestorm. With a glance down at the ground, I saw that the Charmander was still standing alongside me.

"You holding out okay?" I asked.

He nodded. I couldn't figure out why he'd been basically glued to me throughout the whole ordeal, but in an odd sort of way it felt…reassuring. I realized it had to be the same feeling that trainers had when traveling in dangerous places with their Pokémon by their side.

Only at that point did I remember that I actually had Swift with me too. I grabbed his Poké Ball from my pocket, figuring I might as well let him out. With a flash of light, the Pidgey appeared, ruffling his feathers. That was his first time being in a Poké Ball, so it was probably a weird experience.

I realized I should probably say something. "Uh…Swift, this is Firestorm. Firestorm, Swift." Lame, but I couldn't think of anything else at that point. Swift had been with my family since before I'd learned any Pokéspeech, so I'd gotten used to him being more of a pet than someone to talk with. And, well, he'd never been one to talk much anyway.

Despite my apparent failure at figuring out how to hold a normal conversation with Pokémon, Firestorm took it upon himself to start one. "*So how did you get involved in this?*"

I laughed a bit. "Wrong place at the wrong time. Just like you, I guess."

He nodded softly. "*I've had lots of that.*"

I wanted to know more about what his perspective was on everything that had gone on before the Rocket mess, but there didn't seem to be a delicate way to ask. After a while I just said, "Did…did you even see what caused the fire?"

He hesitated a bit before speaking slowly—I was glad that his words were so meticulous; otherwise I probably would have had a harder time understanding him. "*The others were all running away in a panic…some of them were shouting about the Great Fire Beast. I never saw him though.*"

I looked down, images from the incident still burned into my memory. The entire situation seemed even weirder when looking back on it. "That fire was caused by humans trying to catch Entei. I actually saw it happen, but I couldn't do anything about it."

Firestorm looked a bit puzzled at first. "*Catch? I never really thought about Legendaries being catchable like normal Pokémon.*"

To be honest, it was not something that had really crossed my mind before this point either. Sure, every school-age kid in the world had their dream team complete with their favorite Legendary, but that wasn't something that could ever actually _happen_. And yet…it _had_ happened. And it would probably happen again, unless…

"You know…I met someone who was trying to stop it. He couldn't do it on his own, but he was trying to get people to help him," I said, more thinking aloud than actually hoping for a response.

"*Were you planning to help him?*" a voice chirped, catching me off guard. I had been so focused on the Charmander's speech that hearing a different form of Pokéspeech was a bit disorienting. I turned toward Swift and was met with a very intent and deliberate expression.

My reply was a bit weak. "I…hadn't really considered his offer until now. I mean…what could someone like me do to help?"

"*Legendaries shouldn't be captured,*" the Pidgey replied simply. I couldn't help looking at him in surprise—where had he gotten that opinion from? The topic of Legendaries had never really come up in my house, barring that two-month or so period I couldn't stop talking about them after reading about them in social studies.

I couldn't think of anything to say in response to his adamant reply. I found myself looking away sheepishly. The lull in the conversation suddenly made me aware that I could feel the plane descending quickly. It didn't seem like we'd been flying for very long, but then, I had lost track of how much time had passed since Spencer had beaten Tyson.

Rudy looked to be spending the time debating over training methods for strengthening his Pokémon. Spencer, meanwhile, was having an amusing discussion with his Pokémon, in which I could tell that he didn't understand them much, yet it didn't seem to stop him from responding to everything they said as if a split conversation like that were completely normal. I couldn't help chuckling a bit at it.

Swift twitched slightly, perking up like something was about to happen. I turned toward him confusedly, about to ask what was wrong. And then I was thrown forward, crashing headlong into the side of a crate and clutching onto it instinctively, screwing my eyes shut and feeling loose items knocked aside during the battle now sliding against me. I could hear shouting and the frantic cries of more Pokémon than I could count. Claws lightly gripped my shoulder and I opened an eye to see Firestorm grabbing hold of me and refusing to let go.

Not more than thirty seconds after it started, the plane grinded to a halt. I would have sunk to the floor in relief if I hadn't already been on the floor.

"What the _heck_ was that?!" Rudy yelled, shoving a crate aside and standing to his feet.

"He told me to land the plane. I landed it," Tyson replied coldly, a bit of smugness to his voice. I noticed that he had clipped himself to a safety belt near the emergency control panel. Typhlosion immediately jumped back into position to make sure Tyson still couldn't pull anything against us, though the latter didn't seem to care anymore.

"Well I don't know about you guys, but I don't think I'll be flying Rocket Airlines again anytime soon. In any case, I say we get out of here now, and worry about spamming them with bad reviews later," Spencer said, walking over.

"Where is here, exactly?" I said, glancing around for a window. I spotted one on the far end of the hangar and started walking toward it, but Rudy beat me there. It looked like we had crash-landed on the edge of a forest, with a rocky outcropping not more than twenty yards from the plane.

"Alright, so…for starters how do we get out of the plane?" Rudy asked.

"Well, we could try melting through the ice," Spencer said, jerking a thumb toward the hole that the Pikachu had caused earlier. "I've got two fire-types, so—"

"You have _another_ fire-type?!" Rudy said, looking shocked. "Why didn't you use it earlier?"

"I didn't need to?" Spencer said, shrugging as he recalled his Electabuzz and Mightyena and pulled out a different Poké Ball. The flash of light from inside took the form of a _huge_ striped firedog, not much different from Rudy's Growlithe, though obviously much bigger and more powerful. The Arcanine tossed its head slightly with a bit of a proud look on its face upon seeing the admiration it was receiving; the motion caused its thick, fluffy mane to flow in an almost impossibly graceful way.

"No way…" Rudy managed, staring at the firedog, looking more amazed than I'd ever seen him. "Maybe I should've tried to convince my dad to let me bring Chloe too…"

"Come on, let's get outta here," Spencer said cheerfully, motioning to his Arcanine.

"What are you guys doing?!" Tyson demanded all of a sudden.

"Getting out of here. Why, do you like having us around?" Spencer asked tauntingly.

Tyson clenched his teeth, looking nervous. "You idiots don't even know where we are. What are you supposed to do, wander around the forest?"

I raised an eyebrow. What was he trying to accomplish…getting us to stay here? How on earth would that even help him, given his situation?

Even weirder was the fact that until we had tried to leave, Tyson had seemed oddly okay with everything that was going on. Earlier he'd needed to try his hardest not to explode with rage. Now he just seemed…impatient.

"You guys?" I said, lowering my voice to a whisper. "Anyone else think it's weird that Tyson's not pissed at us anymore?"

"Maybe he found his anger meds?" Spencer said with a weak grin. Rudy and I glanced at each other, then back at Spencer, eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, okay, that was lame," he said, putting a hand to his forehead. "Anyways, think he's planning something?"

I couldn't really tell. He wasn't really doing anything, although every so often he'd glance down at the small red and black handheld that he'd been using as a GPS.

Wait…his GPS.

"Oh crap…that's not a phone, is it?" I said, my mouth dropping.

Spencer and Rudy looked up at him immediately. Tyson seemed to notice that we were staring at him because he said, "It's a GPS, idiots," before going back to fiddling with the buttons.

"Hey Typhlosion, I _really_ need to have what he's holding. Like, right now," Spencer called out.

"Oh _come on now_!" Tyson roared before being promptly tackled by the fire beast. After a few seconds, Typhlosion tossed the blue device to Spencer, who caught it.

"Give that the _hell_ back, what do you need it for?!" Tyson raged at us from under Typhlosion's hold.

"I don't think you understand—I just really love GPSs," Spencer said simply, pressing a button on the device, which had the letters "R-Com" inscribed on the front. Both Rudy and I leaned in to get a look at the screen. A half-finished text message read, "Landed on schedule. Requesting your current location and—"

"What…" I said flatly, staring at the message. "Don't tell me…"

Spencer flipped through the previous messages in the conversation. "Team dispatched. ETA 19:15." "Coordinates sent. Crash time approx. 19:10."

All three of us looked up at each other incredulously. I glanced over at Tyson to see that he was looking incredibly smug. "I was able to call for backup as soon as I figured out where we'd land. Since we were both converging on the same spot, I bet they'll be here any second."

It felt as though the air had been sucked out of the room with that one statement. For several seconds no one said anything. There wasn't anything _to_ say. I could already feel a hole in my stomach from dread. We had been in the clear. We were going to make it. And then…this.

"Actually!" Spencer exclaimed suddenly. "I just remembered I have somewhere very important to be, so y'know I'm just gonna have to take a rain check on the whole battling Rockets to the death thing, so sorry I can't make it, very urgent, hope you'll understand, hey guys you're invited too, let's go now, _Arcanine_!"

On that last word, Arcanine barked out a blazing Flamethrower, instantly bursting clean through the ice at the back of the plane and filling the hangar with steam.

"Alrighty, get on board everyone or we'll be late for our date with getting-the-frick-out-of-here!" Spencer exclaimed, recalling his other two Pokémon. Rudy nodded sharply, recalling his Pokémon and jumping up onto the firedog's back. I motioned to Swift to follow us in the air before glancing around my feet and seeing Firestorm standing there looking wary. And then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the experimental Pikachu's crumpled form, still unconscious from having destroyed the plane's engine earlier.

It was more of an impulse than anything—I didn't even know why I was doing it. I dashed over, snatched the Pikachu with my right arm before scooping up Firestorm under my left and throwing a leg over the Arcanine's back.

I threw a glance back at Spencer, who motioned to Typhlosion, who threw Tyson under a pile of boxes and hurriedly dashed forward on all fours, pausing just enough for Spencer to leap onto its back. That was all I saw before Arcanine sprung out the hole in the ice, landing nimbly on the horizontal stabilizer of the tail before bounding down to the ground.

And then the screeching of tires and what sounded like gunshots filled the air. I couldn't figure out what was going on anymore. Spencer shouted something as he and Typhlosion jumped through the ice hole, and then I was nearly thrown off as the firedog Rudy and I were riding bolted forward with an impossible rush of speed, apparently trying to avoid _something_. More yelling, more gunshots, I could see the trees flying by as Arcanine dashed up the side of the rocky ledges alongside the crash site, finally ducking down behind a large rock, closely followed by Typhlosion.

I slid off the Arcanine's back, feeling slightly numb as I set Firestorm and the Pikachu on the ground. "What…what is going _on_," I gasped, still disoriented from the sudden rush of speed and chaos.

"The Rockets were on the other side of the jet," Spencer managed. "They tried firing at us; couldn't really get a clear shot, though."

"What do we do now?!" I panicked.

"I don't know, I didn't think they'd be here already!" Spencer exclaimed. "We could just try making a break for it?"

"Can your Pokémon outrun _jeeps_?" Rudy asked, sounding honestly optimistic and enthusiastic about the idea.

"I don't know—maybe over a short distance?"

At that moment, the jeeps pulled up and skidded to a stop on our side of the jet, throwing dust into the air. I peeked around the corner of the ledge concealing us to see one of the Rockets riding in the back of the first vehicle jump out in one smooth motion and proceed to look over the damages done to the plane.

"You know, Tyson, when you said the transport jet was gonna crash I never guessed it'd be 'cause of some random stowaway kids and a prisoner you were supposed to bring to me," she said, her voice cool and competent. Was she the Executive I was supposed to be interrogated by?

"I—but—don't go blaming this on me," Tyson called out. I glanced up to see him now standing on the tail stabilizer, looking bruised and battered. "And why didn't you bring more backup?! Just a bunch of grunts?" He sounded on the verge of losing control.

"Cleaning up after the mess you made of the jet sounds like grunt work to me," she replied lazily. "That leaves me stuck taking care of the idiot kids."

"They're not just kids," Tyson said defensively. "One of em's older than the others and his Pokémon are a match even for my experimen—"

"Tyson, your experiments were never all that amazing anyway," she cut in, waving a hand dismissively. "I don't even know why you still bother training them after all the progress that your division's made on Number Thirty-Six,"

"Tch…better than using regular Pokémon," Tyson countered back. "And I think you're forgetting that it's what I was _assigned to do_. Of course you wouldn't know what that's like 'cause the second you joined you were—"

"Oh, still going on with that crap about how I was always an Executive, is that it now? I think you should _watch_ what you say there Tyson, unless you're secure enough in your position to want to pick fights with me." Tyson flinched and didn't say anything more.

I really had no idea what they were talking about, and I was especially confused at the fact that the Executive looked like she couldn't be much older than her late teens. It seemed weird that someone so young could be ranked that highly on Team Rocket.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter—I'll deal with them," she said, turning toward us and walking forward. That was when we got our first real look at her. She had a very hardened and mature look about her, which made me almost completely forget that she was probably younger than most of the other Rockets there. Somehow, before she had even done anything, she just _felt_ more dangerous than the rest.

"Spencer…uh, we need a plan, like, now," I muttered, overcome with anxiety.

"Gimme a sec…at least they can't shoot us while we're back here, right?"

I heard the sound of several Poké Balls being opened and looked back at the Rocket to see "Oh crap, here they come!"

Spencer clenched his teeth, looking completely panicked as he motioned to his two fire Pokémon to get on our other side, so that they could attack our opponents from around the corner before they got here. A fierce snarling suddenly filled the air—it sounded like an Arcanine's call, but…Spencer's hadn't caused it.

I looked around the corner again to see another striped firedog, similar to Spencer's, but this one had a horrifyingly vicious expression right now, causing Typhlosion and Arcanine to recoil slightly, seemingly losing some of the tension in their muscles.

It took me a second, but then I recognized what it had done. Her Arcanine must have had the Intimidate ability, which cut the strength of any attacker it encountered.

"Crap, gonna Intimidate us, is that it?" Spencer mumbled through gritted teeth. "Time for ranged moves, then…Typhlosion, Arcanine! Flamethrower!"

Simultaneous blasts of fire flew down the hill, striking the other Arcanine right in its front. It snarled as it took the assaults, noticeably affected by them despite its natural resistance to fire. But then suddenly flames were scattered everywhere as a tan horse jumped in the way of the blaze, glowing with a fiery sheen—it didn't seem to even _notice_ that it was being hit. In fact, the flames of its mane and tail only intensified.

"Did that just make it stronger?! Oh crap, it must have Flash Fire. Typhlosion, stop the Flamethrower and use Dig! Arcanine—" And then Spencer's face lit up like he had just made the best realization of his life. "Dude, I've got it! Typhlosion, quick—use Flamethrower on Arcanine!"

Typhlosion paused its sudden spurt of digging to breathe out a lick of flames at the orange-striped firedog before disappearing underground. The Arcanine seemed empowered by the flames hitting its body, pulling them into itself before glowing with a red aura.

"Her Arcanine might have Intimidate, but mine's got Flash Fire!" Spencer exclaimed, looking thoroughly pleased with himself. "Now for reinforcements," he said, opening the rest of his Poké Balls. "Electabuzz, keep them from getting close with non-stop Thunderbolts. Dewgong, use Brine; Pidgeot, Air Slash; Mightyena, Dark Pulse!"

All of his Pokémon got into position upon hearing the commands, his Arcanine already throwing a Fire Blast into the fray, its firepower scarily bright now. But then my eyes lit up when I fully grasped that he had just let out a Pidgeot.

"Wait! You have a Pidgeot! Can't we just fly out of here?!" I exclaimed, pointing at the massive tawny eagle that had just taken flight over the battlefield.

Spencer paused, smiling weakly. "It's cool that you think he's that hardcore, but…yeah, no way can he pull off carrying all three of us."

"Crap…okay, how about one person rides off on Pidgeot while the others stay here protected by the rest of your Pokémon, and then Pidgeot comes back to get the others?"

"I…guess that could work?" Spencer said, rubbing the back of his head.

And then suddenly at that moment, an earsplitting crack tore the air. A flash of light blinded my eyes—I could barely make out a ridiculously thick bolt of lightning surging through the air, striking right through the Pidgeot before it even got the chance to rain aerial attacks onto the opposition. The long, glossy feathers trailing from its head were singed black instantly, and it let out a pitiful cry before going limp and falling to the ground in an awkward heap. At the bottom of the hill, a Raichu stood, clearly smirking with sparks still leaping off its yellow cheek pouches. It gave a swish of its long, inky-black tail and dashed forward into the fray.

Spencer was staring wide-eyed at what had just happened, his mouth agape. Slowly, he reached down to his Poké Ball belt and recalled Pidgeot in a beam of red light. In that one moment, the real weight of the situation crashed down on me like a bucket of cold water—it had felt like we had a fighting chance to get out of this, but…we really didn't, did we?

"Yeah, that would have been us if we'd tried flying away," Rudy pointed out. No one said anything as the implications of what he'd said sunk in.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Ace from the Past**

I found myself unable to do anything but stare at the ongoing battle, any feeling of hope dying rapidly. Really, the _only _advantage we had was our defensive position. Spencer's Electabuzz was keeping most of the Executive's Pokémon at bay with scattered bolts of lightning shot from its fingertips, but it constantly had to duck back to avoid the ridiculous amount of fire being thrown around by all of the Pokémon. Mightyena's ash-colored fur was now charred black; by this point, all of its moves were sluggish, and every so often its limbs would tremble from the excessive burns. The Executive's Rapidash was galloping around the outskirts of the battle, still glowing from its earlier fire boost and clearly trying to get close enough to attack us. The only thing keeping it back was the bursts of water that Dewgong kept sending flying into the air and crashing down on the opposition. Spencer's Arcanine had clearly been forced to endure the most hits, and yet it still darted around the battlefield, using its Extremespeed technique both to land rapid blows and block its teammates from the relentless flames being thrown around the fray. Even from where I was standing, the waves of heat radiating outward were causing waves of sweat to drip down my face.

A small bit of movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention, and I looked down to see the experimental Pikachu twitching slightly. I had almost forgotten that I'd brought him with us—now I wasn't quite sure if it had been a good idea or not. He pulled his limbs underneath his body and attempted to raise himself from the ground, but couldn't stop trembling from sheer exhaustion.

"You…you probably should save your strength," I said tentatively.

He turned toward me sharply, looking strangely disoriented like he was trying to be angry and lash out at me, but couldn't figure out how or why. After a few seconds, the experiment looked away to gaze out at the brawl taking place and the scattered bolts and flares flying past us nonstop. The sparks intensified. Small strings of electricity started to course over the rodent's body, intensifying slowly. But then at once they gave out, and he collapsed again, muttering incomprehensibly to himself.

I let out a breath that I didn't know I'd been holding. It was weird—I didn't want to risk the Pikachu going on a mad rampage, but a part of me knew that he was still our best chance at getting out of here.

I heard the sound of a Poké Ball opening and looked over to see Rudy now giving instructions to his Squirtle. He pointed at the opposition, and his starter nodded determinedly. I wasn't sure what he planned on doing, but then suddenly the turtle spat out a lopsided ring of water, which flew over the battlefield and splashed into the Executive's Rapidash, who shook it off, looking annoyed.

Rudy folded his arms. "Huh, that didn't look quite right…oh well, let's try again—Water Pulse!"

Of course—he'd been teaching his Squirtle all kinds of moves while we were on the plane. I immediately reached into my pocket and pulled out the Fire Blast TM that Rudy had given me, running a finger over the glossy case that enclosed the red disc inside. Any little bit could help turn the tide of the battle in our favor…I had to use it.

"Firestorm…could you come over here?" I said.

He turned toward me, looking a bit puzzled. I held out the TM, pausing so I could go over my words carefully.

"It's a Technical Machine," I explained. "Spencer's Pokémon can't handle this alone—if we're gonna get out of this, we need to help too—" I stopped. We? What was I going to do? Nothing—that was just it…heck, I wasn't even the Charmander's trainer. I attempted to shake the thought out of my head and continued, "This thing can give you the ability to focus your power into a massive blast of fire. Would you be willing to learn it to help us fight them?" I was trying not to sound too forceful, even though—at this point—we couldn't afford for him to say no.

Firestorm nodded almost immediately. I blinked, surprised at how willing he was to fight. Did he realize what kind of dangers this would involve?

Still confused, I held the device several inches from the lizard's forehead, flipping a small switch on its side to unlock it and then pressing the largest button. The disc glowed for a few seconds and began spinning—giving off a sort of wave that would react with his energy signature, from what I had once read on TMs. Firestorm froze and looked as though he had been seized by some invisible force. Different parts of his body started to glow faintly at varying intervals. After nearly a minute, the disc slowed; I pulled it away, but he still had a sort of blank stare on his face.

I stepped back so that he could get into position with a good view of the battle that wouldn't put him out in the open. The Charmander still looked a bit dazed, though, like he was locked into a trance that he couldn't pull himself out of.

"…Firestorm?" I asked slowly, raising an eyebrow. I'd never actually seen a Pokémon's reaction to a TM, so I had no idea if this was normal. I took one hesitant step towards him.

And then his gaze sharpened instantly. His eyes shot open with an unexpected ferocity and shimmering waves of heat began to leak from his mouth. At once, he spewed out a column of raging flames, which sent his small figure reeling backwards from the force. With a roar, the blazing stream of fire split off into five branches, twisting off wildly in different directions.

I stood there in shock, knowing well enough that this wasn't what was supposed to happen. Firestorm's eyes went wide, and he jerked his head, trying desperately to control the blaze, though nothing he did seemed to make any difference. Flames kept pouring from his mouth, even though he was clearly trying to force it shut.

"Did you teach the Charmander _Fire Blast_?!" Spencer exclaimed, running over to me.

"Err—yeah?!" I yelled back, now frantic.

He clapped a hand to his forehead. "Aw, crap…I should've warned you—pretty much every trainer tries it at some point… Arcanine, make sure no one on our side gets hit!"

The firedog barked out a cry and leaped to the front of the lineup, allowing one of the branches of the Fire Blast to hit it directly. The force of the attack made it recoil slightly, but otherwise the Arcanine was unaffected. By this point the other four strings of fire had flown off into the air, dissipating uselessly. Firestorm was finally able to sink to the ground, coughing and sputtering with brightly glowing flares still dripping off his tiny fangs.

"Using a TM just gives a Pokémon the power to do the move—if it's one that's hard to do right, you gotta spend time learning the details of how it works and training your Pokémon to pull it off. That goes double for the uber ones that're hard to control," Spencer explained to me, while directing his Pokémon back into battle position.

I felt like shrinking back into a corner somewhere. What had seemed like the only thing I could do to help had turned out to be completely stupid. I glanced down at the TM case, now noticing the label along the bottom corner that read "Rating: 120 (Highly Advanced)."

"I…I'm sorry—I didn't know—" I mumbled.

"It's okay," he cut in, trying to look optimistic. "Arcanine blocked it from hitting the rest of my team. We're still behind, but I'm not counting us out yet—"

At that moment, we had to shield our eyes from a blinding flash let loose from what looked like a raging flurry of steam and scarlet energy surging straight through the middle of the fray. The Executive's Pokémon briefly retreated, giving it the opening it needed to plow straight into the completely unsuspecting form of Spencer's Arcanine, sending brilliantly orange shock waves digging deep into the firedog's body. A sickening howl filled the air as the canine's proud and powerful frame collapsed limply.

"I…what? What the heck move _was_ that?" I stuttered.

Spencer was frozen, looking unable to process whatever had just happened as he slowly reached for a Poké Ball to recall his fallen team member. Now visible in the middle of the battlefield, a stout crimson fox stood panting hard, its long ears drooping and steam leaking off its body. Was…was it the one who had just attacked?

"No. No, no, no, _whyyy_? That's not fair… I didn't even _see_ that she had a Flareon out," Spencer said, his words strained. He pulled out his Pokédex and pointed it at the fire-type Eeveelution, smacking his forehead upon reading something. "Superpower. _Really_? It used Superpower? Can I just forfeit now or get a handicap or _something_?"

No one said anything. With Arcanine down, the Executive's Pokémon were now free to throw as much fire around as they wanted. Not even Dewgong's water was making a dent in them now—the icy white seal cried out in pain as it was constantly bombarded with flames.

"I'm…I'm out of ideas," Spencer said. "Any time you two want to reveal that you've secretly been ace trainers all along, I'd love to hear it."

I looked miserably down at Firestorm. The fire lizard was still panting badly with embers dripping from his mouth. Swift, who was now standing next to him, looked almost embarrassed at being unable to help.

"I don't know what to do." Just saying it made my blood run cold.

"Stop talking like that, you guys—we _can't_ lose!" Rudy cried out, but even his voice was starting to break. His Squirtle was out of breath from attempting to pull off the Water Pulse move so many times.

We all just stared at each other hopelessly with the sounds of fire raging in the background. There was always the possibility of trying to signal a passing trainer, since flying on Pokémon was a popular method of travel. But there was no way Firestorm would be able or willing to use Fire Blast again, and we couldn't afford to have any of Spencer's Pokémon leave the fight, even for a moment. Already my brain was trying to grasp at ways that we could convince the Executive to let us go, all of them equally stupid. There had to be _some way_ out of this. There just had to.

And then suddenly, a high-pitched sound filled our ears as an incredible orange and yellow energy beam surged through the air. The beam honed in on the Rockets' Pokémon perfectly, striking them in a flash of bright light and sending shock waves running through the earth.

"H-hyper Beam?" I muttered, my knees shaking from the beam's not-so-distant impact. I turned my gaze upward, where the attack had originated, and caught sight of a tiny dot in the sky, quickly nearing us.

"AeeeeeerrRRRRRAAAAAAW!" the dot called out. I could barely make out a gray-scaled form with a long, thick tail trailing behind it. A pair of leathery purple wings beat rapidly, pushing it towards us with incredible speed. Was…was it an Aerodactyl—one of the fastest Pokémon in existence? As it neared, I was able to tell that someone was riding it.

"Hey, Jade!" the trainer yelled.

I jerked in surprise. I couldn't see who it was clearly yet, but I could never, ever forget that voice.

"It can't be…" I muttered. I couldn't help staring upward, lost for words and unable to believe it. When the winged Pokémon got within view, I could finally see a petite teenaged girl riding on its back, light-skinned with a bright and confident face and short, dark brown hair blowing back with the wind.

It really was her.

"No way…Ajia?!" I yelled.

I couldn't believe it. How could this possibly be happening—and right at this moment?! Still, there was no doubt in my head that the trainer flying toward me was my old friend, even though I hadn't seen her in so long. Really, the only thing I could do was raise a hand to wave slightly, still in shock. Grinning slightly, she waved to us from atop the gray-scaled pterosaur.

"Who invited you here?!" Tyson shouted.

"Shut up, I'm the one handling this," the Rocket Executive said, looking rather intrigued by the new arrival.

Her Aerodactyl swooped down to land behind the rocky ledge that we'd been using as cover, easily evading a burst of lightning that the Raichu had sent upward at the last second. After unbuckling herself from the flight harness her Pokémon was wearing, she slid off its back, now standing next to me at about my shoulder in height.

"What's wrong Jade, I thought you'd be happier to see me," she said, laughing and elbowing me lightly in the ribs.

That broke me out of my trance a little. Still, I felt more than a little overwhelmed as I struggled to find my words. "You…_how_…how are you _here_? I haven't seen you in…over a year, at least. Not since you left to train in Johto."

"I wanted to visit Viridian sooner, but I got caught up with things. And…from the looks of things, so did you…" Her voice trailed off as she looked over the bizarre setting, from the mangled jet plane to the crowd of jeeps, the Executive still glowering at us, and the mutant Pikachu lying a few feet from me. The look she gave me next made me suddenly aware of the fact that I was still covered in soot and wearing chains around my hands and feet. "…How did you even get involved in this mess?" she asked, rubbing the back of her head.

I put a hand to my forehead. "I don't even know anymore."

"Hi guys, I _love_ reunions, and the best way to bond at a reunion is to beat the crap out of the people that want to kill us with awesome top-class Pokémon that you totally have, am-I-right?" Spencer cut in rapidly with an overly hopeful look on his face.

"That's why I'm here," she said simply, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, I've got this." Spencer looked ready to collapse from relief.

Ajia turned sharply to face the battlefield, already pulling out several Poké Balls and quickly taking in the details of the battle with an expression that had shifted into intense determination. I looked over to see Spencer recalling his battered Dewgong into its ball. Now it was only Electabuzz and Typhlosion left in the fight, the former still desperately using its lightning to keep the opposition from getting to us, and the latter attempting to avoid blows by popping in and out of the ground and striking when it was least expected. The far edge of the hill had an indent cut into it from where the Hyper Beam had struck, but none of the Rocket's Pokémon had fallen from the attack.

"She probably had the Raichu probably put up a Light Screen at the last second—at least, I wouldn't expect anything less from her," Ajia said to herself, almost in response to my thoughts. She turned to me and added, "My Aerodactyl's Hyper Beam isn't the strongest—he's better at physical moves. It was the best long-distance option I had at the time, though." She paused slightly, contemplating something. "The Raichu has to go down first…Pichu, you're up!"

She threw a Poké Ball forward, and a flash of white light burst forth, instantly taking the form of a small, pale yellow mouse racing into the fray. Memories flooded my mind upon seeing her—I faintly recalled the day that Ajia had received the Pichu from her dad, nearly four years ago.

"She still hasn't evolved?" I asked, watching the nimble rodent skillfully ducking under her opponents and letting loose small jolts of electricity at them.

"She didn't want to," Ajia replied, shrugging in a way that seemed to imply that she didn't mind. "We've focused all our training on getting around it." She was already pulling out two more Poké Balls, letting out a pair of fox Pokémon. The first one, an Espeon, outstretched its lithe frame and gave a flick of its forked tail, focusing its vibrant purple eyes on the battlefield. Alongside it, an Umbreon pawed at the ground in anticipation, its long ears twitching and ring-like markings glowing faintly.

"Umbreon, use Toxic; Espeon, Calm Mind; Aerodactyl, fly overhead and use Air Slash—be ready to dodge lightning!"

The dark fox charged forward, squirting out a noxious liquid from its pores and hitting the Arcanine right on target. Umbreon was much too slow to dodge the overwhelming blaze that soon followed, but it merely stood its ground against the firedog, wincing slightly from the intense flames, but looking like it could endure them all day. Overhead, Aerodactyl was ducking and rolling through the air, forcing the Raichu to expend all its energy just trying to land a hit, all while sending blades of air flying from its wingtips, keeping the Rapidash from breaking through the lineup.

"All right, good…looks like I was right—this isn't the worst situation to be in, and with them already being weakened by your friend, we should be able to come out on top without too much difficulty."

I stared, chills now running down my spine. Everything that she'd said so far was starting to come together. "Ajia, you've…have you fought Rockets before?"

The question made her pause slightly, but she nodded nonetheless. And from the sound of things, she'd had much worse fights than this. I hadn't really thought about it before, but the top members of Team Rocket had to be incredibly skilled trainers, travelling all over and honing their skills for years, just like any other ace trainer.

"Pichu, dodge and use Swift; Espeon, Confusion!" she called out.

My attention snapped back to the battle at once. Pichu darted past the Executive's Flareon, easily evading the fire fox's attempt to bite down with fangs that were glowing like hot iron. The Raichu kept trying to pause and charge up the power needed for one of its massive lightning assaults, but couldn't seem to get a chance to concentrate with Pichu intermittently sending stars of white energy honing in on the larger rodent's face. In the meantime, any of the opposing Pokémon trying to land a hit found themselves held in place by blue psychic energy from Espeon. Though it was easy for them to shake off the telekinetic control, the momentary pause in their movements made them easy targets for the blades of wind being thrown around by Aerodactyl, who had its tongue hanging out as it looped through the air, looking to be almost lazily enjoying its role.

I couldn't help staring at the scene in awe of how well Ajia's Pokémon were working together. Even though she hadn't been giving any commands more than just the attack names, it was like they already knew what sort of strategy she wanted them to employ…like she had already spent the time training them in this sort of melee tactics. Half her team was darting around using small, scattered blows to draw attention and distract. All the while, half of the Rocket's Pokémon were now covered in a toxic film, gradually dulling their movements the longer they had to struggle against the annoying and indirect tactics. Despite the ridiculously overpowered nature of most of the opponents' attacks, they just weren't able to pull anything off.

A pitiful cry drew my attention to the Executive's Arcanine. It had just collapsed, the combination of its wounds and exhaustion and poison having finally overwhelmed it. I saw the familiar red beam draw it back into its Poké Ball and out of view.

"All right! One down!" Rudy exclaimed.

I had to admit it was a definite relief. Finally a real sign that it was possible for us to win this. I saw Ajia grin slightly to herself before pressing the attack—her Pokémon had switched into more direct offenses now. Aerodactyl finally got an opening to soar low over the battlefield, slicing through parts of the ledges and sending a Rock Slide cascading down over the opposition. Raichu tried to send more lightning flying at the rock-skinned pterosaur, but Umbreon had taken to fighting it up close, not bothered by the electric mouse's attacks. Espeon had leaped onto the Rapidash's back, and though the fire horse desperately tried to buck the violet fox off, the latter continued to hit it with blasts of psychic energy.

And then I heard the sound of a Poké Ball opening, followed by a vicious howling that caught Ajia's Pokémon off guard. No…no, it couldn't be… I edged over to get a better view of the Rockets and—there it was. The Executive's Arcanine was back in the fight, barking out Flamethrowers and looking completely refreshed. I stared at the sight, unable to believe it.

And then I noticed that one of the Rockets sitting in the jeep nearest the Executive was holding a sleek, capsule-like device almost like a rounded briefcase. I couldn't quite make out what it was at this distance, but couldn't help getting that feeling that it was important.

I pointed it out to Ajia, who slapped her forehead upon seeing it. "A portable healer. They _would_ have one of those, wouldn't they? Those cheats." She clenched her teeth, looking worried for the first time in the fight. "Alrighty then…so they're going to play that game. My Pokémon haven't had to expend too much energy so far, but they can't keep this going forever."

"Could…could we try to destroy the healer?" I asked tentatively.

"Those are combat jeeps—they'll have shields. We need to figure out a way to retreat. My Aerodactyl should be able to fly while carrying two people, at least." She motioned to get Spencer's attention. "Er, sorry, I don't know your name."

"Spencer, at your service," he replied with a mock bow.

"Right, then—do you have any Pokémon that could fly while carrying anyone?"

Spencer's face fell immediately. "I…er, well, I did. My Pidgeot got taken out at the start of the battle. If I had some way to heal him…" He paused, looking ready to smack himself. I wondered why, but then—then I realized it. We were complete idiots; there had been a massive box of healing supplies in the plane. If we'd only thought to grab some of them—I felt like kicking myself at the realization.

Ajia raised an eyebrow at the expressions of horror suddenly striking our faces. "Let me guess—things just got worse? Really, guys, this is enough surprises for one day."

"It's not that," I said, putting a hand over my face. "We left behind a huge crate of potions and such in the plane. If we'd thought to bring 'em with us, we could have done the same thing the Rockets are doing now. Or better yet, we could have figured out a way to escape."

Ajia nodded, her expression tough to make out. She observed the plane's wreck, now looking thoughtful. "So we just need to figure out a way onto the plane. It'd be too difficult for us to make it on there while they've got any Pokémon out."

"And guns. Guns are pretty bad too," Spencer piped up.

"Don't worry, I've got a plan for that. But as for the Pokémon…since they'll just get healed any time we take one of them out…" Her eyes lit up at once. "We just have to take them all out at the same time. Then we can storm the plane while they're being healed and get out of here no problem."

Her enthusiasm was rubbing off—I couldn't help being momentarily excited by the plan, though I found myself filled with doubts almost immediately afterward. "We have to knock them all out at once? How the heck are we supposed to do that?"

"*I've got it.*"

The sudden voice in Pokéspeech caught me off guard, and I whirled around to see the experimental Pikachu finally pulling himself to his feet, swaying a bit but fixing his eyes on us intensely.

"…What?" At first it was all I could figure out how to say. It took me several seconds to really register the fact that he was trying to help us. "How…how are you supposed to—you're out of power, what could you possibly do?"

I hadn't meant to say it so bluntly. The rodent's lightning bolt tail twitched a bit out of anger, and he didn't dignify my comment with a response. Instead, he called out, "*Pichu, come here!*"

Ajia's Pichu twitched her large, diamond-shaped ears upon hearing his exclamation, but otherwise didn't respond, though she occasionally shot an inquisitive glance at Ajia.

"Well come on, she's not gonna abandon the battle just like that—let us know what you're planning," Ajia said, looking amused. I tried making a face to let her know to be careful what she said around him on account of his unpredictability, but really had no idea how to communicate it.

The experiment turned away sharply, his expression fierce, yet somehow twisted, like he didn't really know how to make any other face. Several seconds passed without anyone saying a word. Finally, he launched into an explanation. He spoke much too quickly for me to make out what he was saying, though Ajia seemed to have no trouble with it. Every so often I caught a phrase like "*can't hold onto my power*" or "*but it will take all of them out.*"

Throughout all of this, Ajia had remained silent, though she glanced at the battle frequently, using hand signals to direct her Pokémon's moves. After the Pikachu had finished relaying his plan, Ajia motioned to her Pichu, who raced over to us.

The experiment briefly explained something to Pichu, who looked up at her trainer in surprise. Ajia nodded, looking serious. And then the Pikachu put a paw against one of the electrical generators on Pichu's cheeks, screwing his eyes shut in concentration. Strings of lightning suddenly began surging across his arm, flowing from the smaller mouse into the larger, causing him to recoil in pain. Still, he kept his paw firmly in place, not giving any indication that he wanted to stop, though his breathing was heavy and his limbs trembled occasionally. Sparks leapt off his fur erratically as the electricity surrounded him, causing the hybrid to grit his teeth before slowly and forcefully pulling the energy into himself.

"Can…someone tell me what is going on here?" I asked, feeling horribly lost.

"You couldn't understand him?" Ajia asked, looking genuinely surprised. "Oh, right…you always had trouble with Pokéspeech class."

"Er…well, I'm decent at it…maybe not fluent, but I'm way better than I used to be," I mumbled, feeling my cheeks go a bit red.

Ajia nodded, realizing I didn't want to talk about it. "Well, Pichu is channeling her power supply into him. He said he could absorb it—does he have the Lightningrod ability or something?"

"I…don't know?" I said, shrugging. What he'd been doing didn't seem to match with any kind of special ability I'd heard of, and I was pretty sure Lightningrod would have caused him to unconsciously draw all the electricity from the battle.

Several minutes passed, during which Pichu relayed all of her remaining power supply into the experimental Pikachu. She was forced to pause frequently, as though the strain of keeping a continuous flow of electricity was too much. When it was finally done, Pichu slumped to the ground, exhausted. And then the Pikachu slowly stood to his feet, fur standing on end and eyes filled with a renewed vigor.

Still, something about his plan just didn't seem to make any sense. "I don't get it," I said to him. "I understand that your power is—I don't know—more intense from being part Zapdos and all, but…if she's just _giving_ her power to you…what can you do with it that she can't?"

He paused heavily. And then, for the first time I'd seen, he managed to wrench his face into something other than pain or rage: an ironic smile. "*Most Pokémon can't drain their whole power supply into one move. It's not natural. Their bodies aren't designed to handle it. But me? I have a hard time _not_ doing that.*" His words were slow and strained.

Ajia kneeled to pick up the small, sad form of her unconscious Pichu, pulling out a Poké Ball at the same time. "She normally prefers being outside the ball, but with what we're going for now…" Her voice trailed off as she recalled her first Pokémon. "So…are we all ready?"

The Pikachu was the first one to nod, saying, "*Raichu is the only problem. He'll be able to make electric barriers.*"

"Alright, so…we pretty much have to screw strategy and just _take out that Raichu however possible_. Sounds fun. Time for moves that never miss?"

It took Spencer a second or two to realize that she had addressed that last bit to him. "Oh? Oh, yeah! Typhlosion, Swift! Electabuzz, Shock Wave!" he yelled, pointing straight at the Executive's Raichu.

"Umbreon, Faint Attack! Espeon, Swift! Aerodactyl, Aerial Ace!" Ajia commanded.

The orange rodent tried to make a break for it, but was hilariously unprepared for the ridiculous barrage of attacks now honing in on him, despite his best attempts at evasion. The Rocket Executive jerked backward in surprise, clearly not expecting that kind of battle move, and could only watch as her Raichu was completely overwhelmed by a flood of energy discs, strings of electricity, Umbreon phasing out of shadow right alongside him, and Aerodactyl pulling out of a dive with a rapid upward slice of its wings. The Raichu cried out in pain as he was smacked in between one attack after another, and his trainer had no choice but to recall him.

"Alright, it's now or never!" Ajia exclaimed to the Pikachu, recalling her Umbreon and motioning her other two to pull back from the battle. At Spencer's command, Typhlosion ducked underground again and Electabuzz stumbled back to where we were standing, looking horribly exhausted and sinking to its knees the first chance it could get. Rudy recalled his Squirtle, which made me realize that I'd need to do the same for my Pokémon, even if one of them technically wasn't mine. It felt a little awkward recalling the Charmander into the ball, but I didn't have much choice.

And then it was only the experiment standing between us and the Rocket's Pokémon. The Executive had already passed her Raichu's Poké Ball to the grunt with the portable healer, so we only had a small window of opportunity.

"*Time to end this,*" the Pikachu said. A flash of hate flickered in his eyes.

And then he raced forward into the fray, an explosion of sparks leaping off of his body. It wouldn't have even been right to describe it as bolts of lightning; it was as if a flood of electricity was pouring out from every inch of his skin with no way to hold it back. The Rocket's Pokémon tried to counter it by letting loose a rush of fire, but it was just too much. All of their flames were swept aside by the massive wave of lightning, which struck our opponents' lineup and completely enveloped them. One by one, all of the Rocket's Pokémon collapsed to the ground to be recalled into their Poké Balls right afterward.

But there was no stopping the outpouring of electricity. At this point, I don't think the Pikachu could have controlled it if he'd wanted to. Massive bolts started shooting out from the hybrid's body at random, most of them flying into the air, but the others hurtling toward the Rockets. They didn't even get a chance to move—all of them in or near the closest jeep were sent flying backwards, crying out in pain. I winced slightly—it was strange to see our attackers suddenly rendered so helpless.

And then, without warning, the flood of lightning lessened. The electrical waves started to thin out, giving way to erratic bursts of sparks before the Pikachu collapsed. The whole thing couldn't have lasted more than thirty seconds, but it had felt like ages. I couldn't help tensing up—it was time for us to act.

"Alright, and that's our cue!" Ajia said. "Espeon, use Reflect!"

The psychic fox promptly put up a shimmering barrier of energy surrounding us. Upon seeing it, Spencer recalled Typhlosion and turned to his Electabuzz, "Just a little bit more, buddy—we're gonna need another electrical barrier." His Pokémon grunted a bit out of fatigue, but still managed to produce a shining yellow force field.

"Alright, you two hop on Aerodactyl, the rest of us will follow on foot," Ajia said to me and Rudy, gesturing to the winged reptile. We didn't need telling twice—both of us jumped up and got positioned on her Pokémon's back, holding tight to the straps on its harness.

"Everyone ready? Let's move out!"

Aerodactyl lifted off from the ground, and Spencer and Ajia raced forward beneath us, making their way down the rocky ledges as quickly as possible, the two barrier-producing Pokémon alongside them for protection. Most of the Rocket grunts in the far jeep had run forward to check on their superiors, who had been struck by the tail end of the Pikachu's assault. Some of them were armed; I gripped Aerodactyl's side instinctively when I saw them firing at the group on the ground. But Ajia's plan had worked—the bullets pinged uselessly off the pair of barriers they had used. I let out the breath I had been holding, then immediately had to hold it again as Aerodactyl tucked its wings and swooped forward, soaring straight through the hole at the back of the jet before flaring its wings outward and slowing to a stop in the middle of the cargo bay.

My limbs shaking, I slid off the reptile's back alongside Rudy, who looked a bit nauseous and muttered something like, "That would have been so cool if we weren't running for our lives."

Following not far behind us, Ajia and Spencer soon leaped through the hole and into the plane, almost weightlessly, like they'd been levitated up with Espeon's telekinesis. Ajia paused just quickly enough to recall the psychic-type before racing forward to meet us. I noticed that she was holding the experimental Pikachu under one arm.

"I grabbed him from the battlefield," she explained, handing the spiky-furred rodent to me. "I wasn't sure if you had stolen him from the Rockets or what, but we couldn't just leave him there."

I blinked confusedly, my brain taking several seconds to register the weirdness in what she had just said. I attempted to say something to the degree of, "He's not really mine," but Ajia cut off my thoughts by asking, "So where are the healing supplies?"

"Oh, oh right! They were near the front of the plane last I saw them."

She motioned to Spencer to follow her and the two of them dashed off through the maze of boxes and crates, most of them disheveled from the crash landing. I stood there with Rudy, unable to do anything but wait. It had seemed like the portable healer had taken a couple minutes to heal the Arcanine, so we had a least a small window of time on our side. But the Raichu had been knocked out first, so it had a head start on being treated.

"Found them!" Ajia exclaimed, and I heard Spencer open a Poké Ball to release his Pidgeot immediately. For the next minute or so, the two of them sprayed the massive bird with nearly every medicine they could get their hands on. Slowly, the blackened skin and feathers began to heal as the potions boosted the already astounding regenerative ability characteristic to Pokémon. Spencer poured something into the bird's beak and it snapped awake in an instant, struggling to stand to its feet. The Pidgeot had a slight tremble to its movements—it was clearly still sore from the lightning bolt, but it was healed.

"Alright! Time to get out of here and never get captured by Rockets again! Sound good? I thought so—now get over here, Rudy!" Spencer exclaimed

Not wasting any time, Rudy sprinted over and jumped onto the bird behind Spencer while Ajia ran over to me and the two of us mounted her Aerodactyl. Both Pokémon outstretched their wings, and I barely had a few seconds to prepare myself mentally for the oncoming rush before we were off. Aerodactyl shot forward, soaring straight through the opening at the back of the jet, and nearly throwing me off with its incredible speed. I struggled to lean forward and keep my grip on the reptile's harness straps while holding the Pikachu underneath my arm.

And then Aerodactyl suddenly barreled to the left to avoid a streak of lightning that tore past us out of nowhere, rending the air with an earsplitting crack. I barely managed to catch a glimpse of the Raichu beneath us, sparking wildly and looking enraged before we sped out of its range. So they had managed to heal it in time. But then, with a sickening realization, I remembered—Pidgeot hadn't been fast enough to avoid the electric mouse's Thunder last time.

I threw a look over my shoulder to see Spencer and Rudy trailing behind us on the eagle's back. Time seemed to slow as the Raichu prepared for another attack. There was no way they'd make it.

And then, without warning, Pidgeot accelerated out of nowhere, speeding forward to catch up with us and narrowly avoiding the Thunderbolt that was sent hurtling straight for them.

"Hah, yeah! I knew it'd be good to give you a dose of that X Speed in there!" Spencer exclaimed wildly, patting his bird's neck.

I couldn't even see the Rockets anymore, that's how fast we were zooming away from them. My eyes were wide and my breathing hurried and I could barely believe what had just happened, but none of that mattered because we had made it.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Deliberation**

"All in all, great job today, everyone. I'd say we've graduated to top class as far as not-getting-killed-by-Rockets goes," Spencer said, stretching widely and flopping to the ground.

We were resting in a small, shaded clearing in the woods some thirty minutes west of the crash side, after Spencer's Pidgeot had proven too sore to make the full journey back to Viridian—especially with two passengers. Still, none of us protested the chance to stop and catch our breath after the harrowing escape. I hadn't moved from the spot I'd collapsed onto after sliding down Aerodactyl's back and feeling utterly numb. It would have been nice just lying there with the wind rustling the leaves on the trees and watching the sky slowly melt into red as the day drew to a close. I still had too many thoughts swirling about my head to appreciate any of it, though.

I heard the sound of a Poké Ball opening and then suddenly felt a strange tingling near my hands and feet. I looked down to see a blue psychic aura surrounding the shackles that were still clasped around my wrists and ankles, causing them to snap open suddenly. I had stopped noticing that they were there, what with the waves of fear and adrenaline that had been flooding my system all day until now. Now that they were gone, I was suddenly aware of the aching and itching and couldn't help rubbing my wrists extensively.

"That's better, isn't it?" Ajia said. I noticed Espeon now sitting next to her on Aerodactyl's back, flicking its forked tail. "So Jade...you've really got to tell me how you got mixed up with those Rockets in the first place." She gave me a bit of a sideways glance—or at least, what looked sideways, given that I was sprawled out on the grass looking up at her. It was hard to tell with everything upside-down.

I couldn't help letting out a laugh. "Me? What about you?! How did you even know we were there?"

"I asked you first," Ajia replied with a playful smirk.

Oh come on. That wasn't fair.

I sighed, unsure of how much I wanted to say about it. "I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw something I shouldn't have. That's really all it was." Okay, so that wasn't totally the truth. Still, I wasn't exactly sure if I wanted to bring up my conversation with the Charizard trainer—not because he told me to keep it a secret, but just because I was a bit afraid of the reaction I'd get.

Ajia raised an eyebrow, looking confused. "They kidnapped you just because you saw them doing something? That seems really weird. You'd think a big organization like them wouldn't care if some random kid saw them doing something. It's not like you could exactly _do_ anything with that info."

I paused. "Well…it wasn't just 'something.' I saw them trying to catch Entei."

This revelation got a noticeable silence out of everyone. I noticed Rudy sit up immediately, looking both alarmed and amazed.

"You actually saw Entei?" he said after some time.

I nodded blankly, unsure of what else to do.

"Entei. As in, Legendary beast, Entei? Makes volcanoes erupt, and all that?" Spencer said incredulously.

"Has anyone ever captured a Legendary before?" Rudy asked, looking like he was trying to figure something out.

Almost immediately, Ajia responded, "No. Never."

I closed my eyes, now feeling oddly miserable about the conversation. "They succeeded. They actually caught it. There wasn't really anything I could do."

Ajia gave me a weird look, like she found my comment to be completely bizarre. "Well, come on. It's not like you _could have_ done anything."

I couldn't have done anything. It was the same way with the Rocket situation we had just been in. In both cases I'd been powerless.

"…What would you have done in that situation?" I found myself asking her, not entirely sure why.

"What? That's—what kind of question is that?"

I sighed. "Never mind. It was stupid, forget it."

"Scary organization that tried to kill us now has an ultra-powerful fire-breathing weapon. I hope I'm not the only one bothered by this," Spencer commented.

I didn't really know what to say in response so I just stared back up at the sky. It was almost night—small pinpricks of starlight were starting to shine above us. If we didn't get back to Viridian soon, I'd have a world of explaining to do. The idea of returning home after all of this was somehow very strange and foreign.

"Even if you saw them going after Entei, I still don't get why they cared so much," Ajia continued to herself, apparently still trying to figure out the missing link in my story. "It just seems weird that they had to kidnap you even if you didn't know all that much about them."

"Can…can we not talk about this anymore?" I asked, looking away. "And in any case…what about you? You never said how found us there."

"I saw the Fire Blast from the air. It was pretty hard to miss, actually."

I gave her an incredulous stare. "Um. Yeah, right. You just _happened_ to be flying by and see us?"

Ajia chuckled slightly. "Okay, okay, I already knew you were in trouble. I heard about the situation from a friend. It's kind of a long story, though."

I raised an eyebrow. "We've got time. And does this have anything to do with the fact that you've fought Rockets before?"

She considered the question for a bit and then nodded. "I don't want to end up dragging you into _that_ mess, though."

I couldn't help staring in disbelief. "I'm already involved in _this_ Rocket mess after today, so what's the difference?"

"Jade, be glad that what happened today didn't pull you in too deep," she said, suddenly looking very serious. I blinked, a bit taken aback by her sudden change in expression. It was still just too weird to think that she had apparently gone through situations like this before.

Ajia paused, seeing the look on my face. "I'm sorry. It all happened a long time ago."

I didn't say anything. It was kind of obvious she didn't want to tell me anything anyway, and I couldn't help feeling annoyed by it, even if there was a good reason behind it.

"So…what are you going to do now? Were you on a Pokémon journey before this all started?" Ajia asked.

"Eh…not exactly…I still haven't got my training license, so—"

"You don't? Your parents still don't want you to train?" Ajia said incredulously. "Sheesh, I know training can be dangerous—I guess today kind of proved that—but the whole point is going through hard times and getting stronger and…" She paused, suddenly looking confused. "Hang on…how did you get a starter Pokémon, then?"

"He's, uh…not my starter. I found the Charmander in the woods before I ran into the Rockets."

"Which is completely unfair, if you ask me," Rudy interjected.

"Yeah, yeah," I said, rolling my eyes. "You know, I'm still surprised you chose Squirtle as your starter."

He clapped a hand to his forehead. "Yeah, about that…I should have known that the League registration place would be out of Charmander, so—hey, don't give me that look, I didn't want to wait, okay?" I almost felt like laughing out loud at his impatience. It suddenly made sense that he had been so jealous of my finding a Charmander. Of course, then I couldn't help feeling annoyed by how eager he was to leave on his journey while I was stuck in Viridian.

"So, think we're ready to head off now?" Ajia asked, recalling her Espeon back into its ball. "Back to Viridian now, right?"

I hesitated. In all honesty, I wasn't even sure if I wanted to go home. Something she had said earlier was still stuck in my mind: the point of training Pokémon was to grow stronger. I hadn't been able to do anything, either to help myself or anyone else, all day. Sure, maybe I was too weak to do anything about Team Rocket's Legendary catching _now_, but wasn't that what the Charizard trainer was aiming for? How could I go home and do nothing after knowing what he had told me about Team Rocket catching Legendaries and seeing proof of it right before me? It was weird, but I couldn't help feeling that I'd met him for a reason, and that I was supposed to take that opportunity.

I hadn't wanted to get involved because I didn't think I could make a difference. Now I wanted to join _because_ of that. Maybe I was just insane.

"Hey Ajia, can I talk to you about something for a bit?"

"Sure?" she said, looking a bit puzzled when I stood up and walked a ways from the clearing. I supposed it was kind of weird that I wanted to talk about it in private, but I wasn't supposed to tell anyone to begin with, and I'd known Ajia the longest.

"What is it?" Ajia asked once we were a good distance from the others, who were now looking very confused.

I took a deep breath before pulling the card out of my pocket and handing it to her. "I want to know what you think of this. I'm honestly considering joining a group against Team Rocket."

Something flickered in her eyes when I said that, though I couldn't quite figure out what. Ajia read the card several times, repeating certain bits out loud to herself as though trying to figure out something hidden there that I hadn't noticed.

"It's very vague…though possibly just to protect the leader from being found out by the Rockets. It doesn't even say where you'll be going…I guess you're supposed to figure that out in Vermilion. Overall, it's suspicious, though I don't think it's a trap."

"A trap?" I said blankly. The thought hadn't really occurred to me.

She nodded. "There's always the possibility, but that'd be very unlike the Rockets. What would they gain by going and finding a bunch of kids, deliberately telling them about the organization, and then killing them? No, I think it's real…though I can't say I know what the motives behind it are."

The motives? What other motives could there be for wanting to stop Team Rocket? Before I could ask, Ajia said, "Who exactly gave this to you? The leader of the team, or someone working for them?"

"Um, I'm pretty sure he was the leader. Tall guy, late teens…er, I'm not very good at describing people."

Ajia paused, looking to be deep in thought. She considered something for several seconds, and then said, "If this is what you want to go for…then I'm in no place to stop you. I guess you want to go to Vermilion now?"

I hesitated slightly.

"Yeah. To Vermilion."

We walked back to the clearing, my mind filled with an odd sense of relief after making my decision. Spencer and Rudy perked up slightly upon seeing us return.

"So Jade, mind telling us what your ultra-secret talk was about?" Rudy asked, laughing slightly.

I didn't say anything for several seconds. "Rudy, tell my parents I'm leaving on a Pokémon journey."

He stared at me, unable to work through what I had just said. "…What? You're going on a journey? Hey, I told you it was a good idea! But seriously, this is kind of out of nowhere. What changed your mind?"

I wasn't supposed to tell anyone. I repeated that excuse in my head, but it wasn't entirely the reason. This crazy plan of mine was my choice and he didn't need to be involved. I kind of already knew he'd _want_ to be involved if I told him.

"I guess you could say that today changed my mind."

I glanced around the clearing, then down at the ground where I had placed the limp form of the experimental Pikachu. His back rose and fell lightly with each breath, but there was no sign of him waking up any time soon.

I didn't really know what do with him at this point. It seemed cruel to just leave him here where a predator could find him out cold. And even if it had been for his own reasons, he _had_ helped us.

"Well, we lost his Poké Ball on the plane so I guess I'll just have to hold him again," I said, picking up the rodent as gently as possible.

"Wait a minute…you're actually gonna _keep_ that thing?" Rudy asked, staring wide-eyed at the Pikachu. His expression was a mixture of incredulous fear and envy. Of course he'd wish that he'd been the one to keep a cool hybrid, even if temporarily.

"I wouldn't say it like that. I'm just going to hold onto him until he wakes up, and then explain the situation to him. He'll probably just leave afterwards."

Ajia climbed up onto her Aerodactyl's back and got herself strapped into its flight harness, prompting the reptile to stand to its feet and stretch its wings. I climbed up behind her, taking care to hold the Pikachu as best as I could while still keeping a firm grip on the Aerodactyl's straps.

"Leaving now, huh?" Spencer asked. "Take care! Nice fighting with you…or…alongside you, I guess."

It wasn't like I had done much, but his words still made me smile. "Thanks for everything. I don't know what I'd have done if you hadn't shown up."

Aerodactyl pushed off from the ground and in an instant, we were off. The air was dusky and cool, and the wind whipped at our faces and through our hair as we flew onward. I lost track of how long we had to fly, but the sky had deepened into pitch black by the time I first caught a glimpse of city lights reflecting off the ocean in the distance. The pterosaur swooped down low over Vermilion City, eventually landing alongside the Pokémon Center. I let myself down from its back slowly, my hands now sore beyond belief from all the flying we'd done today. It was almost difficult just holding the Pikachu now—I had to constantly shift his weight between my arms.

"Wait here," Ajia said, dismounting her Pokémon and running inside the large, red-roofed building. Only a few seconds afterward, she returned with a pen and a scrap of notepad paper. She scribbled something onto it and then handed it to me.

"It's my PokéGear number—in case you ever find yourself in too much trouble."

She climbed onto her Aerodactyl once more and waved lightly to me. "Good luck. I hope things work out for you. I mean it."

I waved. "Thanks, Ajia."

And with that, they were off, soaring into the night sky and out of sight.

So now it was time for me to figure out how to handle myself on my own. Though…I suppose I wasn't on my own—I did have my Pokémon.

And then it hit me. I had made this decision without even thinking about the fact that I still had a confused Charmander that didn't even really belong to me. I pulled out Firestorm's Poké Ball slowly, figuring that I'd have to tell him what had happened eventually, and attempt to apologize for taking him here without his consent. A flash of white light formed into the flame-tailed lizard, who glanced around, looking puzzled.

"*Are we safe now?*" he asked.

I nodded. "We're far from your old home, though. I'm not sure what you want to do, but—"

He cut me off. "*I don't get it. Aren't you my trainer now?*"

I blinked stupidly at him. If I had been expecting anything, it hadn't been this. "I guess…well, I never really captured you, but…" I trailed off awkwardly. Did wild Pokémon normally act like this? I had always figured they'd resist going with a human as much as possible. The only reason they went with a human trainer was to get the chance to battle a wide variety of opponents and grow strong—that was the entire reason you had to battle a Pokémon before catching it: to prove yourself. Then again…if he did have a family and a home in that forest, it was likely all gone. There wasn't much he could go back to.

"If you're sure it's what you want, then fine, you can come with me," I said, smiling afterwards. Even though it probably wasn't right to think of it in this light, I couldn't deny that having a Charmander would be really cool.

An overwhelming sense of anxiety still hung over my head, but underneath it all, I couldn't help being excited somehow. Though this hadn't really been the way I wanted it to happen, I was now a Pokémon Trainer. An illegal one off on a mission to join a secret rebel team, sure…but a trainer nonetheless.

* * *

A cool, salty ocean breeze ruffled through my bangs as I strolled down one of Vermilion's coastal walkways, shopping bags in hand. I had put it off as long as possible, but eventually I'd needed to buy more clothes, no matter how much I hated to go shopping for them. I couldn't help wishing that I had somehow known to grab some spare outfits when I had left home. Still, I'd had no idea that any of this would happen; I had just planned on riding around town a little while Rudy finished his chores. It seemed almost crazy how something so small had led to all of this.

Almost absentmindedly, I found myself thumbing through the money in the new wallet I'd bought. It was a good thing TMs were so valuable; I'd held onto to the Fire Blast TM after I made the connection that Series 5 discs were the reusable ones. Pawning it off the second I got to Vermilion had managed to land me 20,000 pyen—I was pretty sure that was far less than it was actually worth, but I was far too desperate to care. I had spent well over half of it within my first two days in Vermilion, but hopefully I wouldn't need to buy anything more than food for the remainder of my time here.

I paused just long enough to stuff the bags into my new backpack before continuing down the road alongside the bay, occasionally shooting a glance out over the horizon. I couldn't help being awed by the endless stretches of sea that surrounded half the city—it was so much more open than the hilly, forested type of setting I was used to seeing around Viridian. Still, rolls of fog were starting to drift in over the ocean, and the day had grown more overcast as it went on. I shivered a bit as an unusually icy chill swept in. Better to head home for the day.

I felt a slight pang in my chest as I walked past the Pokémon Center and its promise of a roof and a warm bed. Those things were for licensed trainers—without being able to receive the trainer's discount, I'd have gone broke within days. I'd had no choice but to settle on…much cheaper arrangements.

I had just reached the northern edge of the city when I felt the first few raindrops hit my arm. Breaking into a run, I headed toward a small line of trees in the otherwise open fields of Route 6. There, shielded from both wind and the view of most passing trainers, was the tent I had bought the first night I had arrived. Because of all the Pokémon Trainers, camping supplies were fairly cheap and thankfully didn't require a license to purchase. That was at least one thing that had gone in my favor.

"I'm back," I announced upon entering the tent, taking care to close the flap behind me.

"*Hello,*" Firestorm replied. He was sitting patiently on the non-flammable, waterproof tarp that I'd bought to cover the floor of the tent. Swift was huddled in the corner. That just left…

"…Where's Pikachu?" I asked, glancing around apprehensively. Given his intimidating air, it felt extremely weird just calling him "Pikachu", but I couldn't think of what else to call him.

"*He went out to train,*" Firestorm answered. "*Sometimes you can see a Thunderbolt out in the field.*"

"Just so long as he doesn't make _actual_ lightning strike," I said, laughing nervously, though there really probably wasn't much risk, as the sky was covered in more of a misty haze than storm clouds. I was a bit relieved that he hadn't decided to take off, but I couldn't figure out why. Why did I care if a random Pokémon that didn't even belong to me just decided to up and leave one day? It's not like he'd said a word to any of us; he hadn't even agreed or disagreed to my keeping him.

Firestorm was now sniffing at the shopping bags I had set down. "*What's that?*" he asked.

"I already told you guys that I needed to buy clothes," I replied, sitting down. "And hey, I thought I told you that I wanted you to talk faster than normal to make it harder for me to catch what you're saying. I want to be sure I can understand you in any situation."

"*Again?*" he said, raising an eyebrow. "*If you can understand me well enough, then why do you need—?*" The Charmander said all of this much more quickly, and my brain didn't really have time to register the second half of what he'd spoken.

"See, that's what I'm talking about!" I exclaimed, as though he were somehow able to read my thoughts. He stared at me confusedly.

"I only got through two semesters of Advanced Pokéspeech, and before that I was completely horrible at it," I explained. Sure, up until this point, I had been able to understand my Pokémon decently, but I knew that I'd need to make sure I was as fluent as possible, and the only way to do that was to practice.

"*Huh? That's weird…why does it take you humans so long to learn it?*"

"Pfft, we're not like Pokémon; our brains don't just 'pick up' languages like that." I snapped my fingers to emphasize the point.

"*Well alright…then couldn't you talk with Swift?*" he asked.

Rubbing the back of my head, I answered, "Er, not really…" Swift had never exactly been one to talk very much. Upon noticing that our conversation involved him, the Pidgey turned away shyly.

"Now…say something completely random or illogical," I instructed Firestorm. "You know, so I don't have context to help me out."

The fire lizard rolled his eyes at first, but then spat out a rapid string of words in Pokéspeech: "Char' charmann'der charmaan 'charr."

I raised an eyebrow. "That meant: 'you are…bad at Pokéspeech'? I said_ illogical_."

"*That was,*" he said promptly.

I shook my head, but couldn't help laughing just the same.

"*Why don't you try talking in Pokéspeech?*" Firestorm asked me. "*You humans can make any sounds you want, right?*"

I shook my head. "That won't work. I mean, I could try, but there's no way I could get the more complicated tone changes down. It's a lot easier for humans to learn how to hear them than to actually make them, and that's saying something." I found myself recalling memories of my first semester of Pokéspeech class. Sure, everyone knew that with Pokéspeech, it was the meaning that was important, not the actual words like with human speech—but somehow, it was impossible to fully appreciate just how different the two ways of speaking were until you'd started learning Pokémon language.

Firestorm took that opportunity to end my practice and resume his investigation of my purchases. It didn't take him long to grow bored of that and start digging through a bag of pokéchow instead, though.

A sudden flash of light drew my attention to the outside. I crawled forward and peeked out the tent flap to see scattered bolts of lightning coming from a field north of us, twisting and flailing wildly into the air. When I stood up, I was able to catch a glimpse of the experimental Pikachu darting around the grass as though tangling with an invisible opponent. I had to suspect that he had already knocked out all the willing combatants on the route and scared away all the unwilling ones.

"Pikachu!" I called out, feeling rather silly. "Hey, Pikachu!"

He really didn't give any indication that he had heard me at all. The hybrid simply continued ducking and weaving throughout the grasses in a very precise and streamlined motion, occasionally leaping out and slicing his tail through the air.

"You know, I heard you when you snuck in the tent last night to steal food. You could have just asked, you know?"

Not a word. Not even a look. His spiky fur stood on end as he charged forward and body slammed the dead remains of a tree, letting loose a wave of electricity from the impact and scorching the trunk even more than it was before.

"Seriously, I know I'm not your trainer but could you at least give me a reason you haven't left yet? I have no idea what to think about you!"

The rodent's breathing was starting to grow heavier from the intense training. Sparks were starting to leap off his fur, but every time they did, he would let off a narrow string of lightning straight along the ground. Compared to his previous moves, this was a lot more precise and controlled.

"You know, in a few weeks, I'm gonna be leaving to join a group fighting the Rockets! Are you going to follow me then too?"

His movements faltered. I noticed him jerk very suddenly at those words, as though caught off guard. It was only for a moment, but he definitely paused before leaping back into the tall grass and out of sight. I waited several seconds, but didn't see any more signs of him training.

"Ugh, just forget it," I muttered, climbing back inside the tent and flopping down onto my sleeping bag. I couldn't help feeling my eyelids start to droop and my muscles go limp, even though it was the middle of the afternoon. I had felt similarly exhausted throughout the past few days as well. Maybe it was stress—I didn't really know.

The wind whipped against the tent as I looked out toward the overcast gray sky. Three more weeks in Vermilion…

* * *

My footsteps were slow and dragging as I walked down the boardwalk for what felt like the hundredth time. The harbor was on the south side of Vermilion, which meant I had pretty much the longest walk possible to get to it from my camping site (which in retrospect was really poor planning on my part, but I had first arrived at the north side of town late at night and hadn't had much time to go wandering around.)

I paused to lean against the fence alongside the walkway and pulled out the card I had been given from its spot in my wallet, reading it over for what must have been the thousandth time. It had seemed like a good idea when I'd first made my decision, but as time went on, reality was sort of starting to set in. I had no idea exactly what I was supposed to be doing here, and how was I even supposed to find the guy with the Charizard? For a while I had wondered if I was supposed to board the S.S. Anne, but if that was the case, how was I supposed to afford a ticket? For now, the only thing I could think of was to spend the day wandering the harbor, hoping to run into the trainer again.

I had just turned to leave when I heard a rushing of air behind me.

"So…you've shown up to find out more," someone said. The voice was vaguely familiar, and I turned to see a tall figure flying down on an orange dragon. I assumed it was the young man I had met in the forest, although I was caught off guard by the fact that he was wearing a long black cloak and a darkly translucent mask that hid face from view.

"Err, hey," I said as the Charizard landed, and the trainer climbed off the fire-type's back. "What's with the mask?"

"That's right…you saw my face back then…" he said distantly. "I hadn't originally been planning on picking up any recruits that day, so I didn't take care to hide my identity. "Everyone else I approached only saw me in these." After he said that, I expected him to remove the mask, but he didn't.

"First of all," he said, "I need to make sure you're really willing to do this."

"Well…yeah. I mean, after you first told me about it, I wasn't so sure, but that was because I didn't think I could do anything, but…" My words trailed off. I realized I wasn't exactly doing the best job at selling myself.

He considered me for some time before he next spoke. "I don't want anyone joining just because it sounds interesting and then deciding to quit after they realize that there's danger involved. Of course, I'm not gonna throw you guys into the fire until you've been trained, but one way or another, this is going to test your resolve." His voice was harsh. Even though he had probably said this same thing to all of his potential recruits, for some reason I felt like a perfect target for it.

And yet…I'd already been through danger with Team Rocket, and I still wanted to do this. That had to count for something, right?

I took a deep breath. "I…I can't just ignore what happened that day. I want to be able to make a difference." I hoped he didn't notice the slight quiver in my voice.

A few seconds passed. "Alright," he said, pulling a small folder filled with several sheets of paper out of his coat and handing it to me. I took it and skimmed the top page quickly. No way…this was…

"This is an S.S. Anne boarding pass?" I said, staring blankly at it.

"How else would you be allowed on the ship?"

"Yeah, but…if you're giving tickets to everyone who's joining the rebel team, then—" I started before he cut me off.

"I told those in charge of the ship that I wanted specialty invites for the Pokémon Trainer's Party on board and then bought a hundred and fifty of them."

I gawked at him. "Holy crap, you must be rich."

"I wouldn't be starting something like this if I weren't prepared. Still, I spent most of my funds on the tickets and renting the stadium we're gonna use as headquarters."

"Which is where…?" I asked, as I'd been wondering it for a long time.

"Sorry, that's classified until you get there."

I stared. But…couldn't anyone just check the ship's records if they really wanted to know? This whole situation was starting to seem kind of strange, but then, there was something else that I had wanted to ask him.

"You said you were recruiting beginning trainers," I said. "Why? Why not more experienced ones that would have a better chance when fighting Team Rocket?" I couldn't help thinking back to the way Ajia had battled.

"I just preferred having a blank slate to work with. I want to be able to train you guys from the start in the battle style that will be most useful for the missions you'll be taking. And beginning trainers are able to change their strategy easier than trainers who've been battling the same way for years. You need to be able to adapt to whatever opponent you face and I also figure I could help train beginning trainers on how to fight Team Rocket a bit more easily." That didn't fully make sense to me—couldn't a skilled trainer adapt their style just as well? Before I could ask, he said, "By the way, did you get any more Pokémon?"

"Er…yeah, I kept the Charmander that I found that day, and I also have a Pikachu," I said. I wasn't entirely sure if it made sense to include Pikachu, or tell the guy about the hybrid's nature.

He nodded. "Your Charmander could be a pretty good fighter once it evolves. Course, I can't say I'm not partial to Charizard." He then walked over and climbed onto his flame dragon's back once more. "Guess I'll be seeing you with the others."

"Yeah, later," I said, watching him fly off on his Charizard. But before he had flown too far, a random thought struck me. "Hey! What's your name?"

He paused to consider the question. "I suppose you guys will need something to call me…" He turned away, and the last thing he said before soaring out of sight was, "Stalker."

Stalker…dodgy name for someone who wasn't totally free of suspicion himself. Still, a part of my mind kept reminding me that when going against Team Rocket, it probably wasn't best to reveal everything about one's plans.

I glanced back over the harbor, my thoughts swimming with both anticipation and anxiety, and the realization that I was now almost definitely bound to this crazy, spur-of-the-moment adventure. I had long since given up my opportunity to return home and put things right from the moment where they had first gone very wrong in the forest that day.

But that almost didn't matter anymore. There was no turning back now, and in a weird sort of way, I didn't mind.

* * *

This chapter is interesting because it's one that didn't really exist in the old version. Oh sure, the events had parallels, but all of the actual content of this chapter is 100% new. It establishes a lot of important character arcs.

But yeah, I know that a fair amount of people have been reading, but only one person has reviewed, so would anyone else mind dropping a quick review? It means a lot to know what you guys think.


End file.
